http://coolshop.org shopping weblog Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:15:42 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The world oil market is usually extremely sensitive to geopolitical conflict. Today, it seems numb to anything but movements in the dollar. Crude prices are sliding even as fighting intensifies in a region that plays a crucial role in the conduit of oil from the Caspian Sea, Georgia. On the ... http://coolshop.org/2008/georgia-not-on-their-minds/ It be able to be tricky trying to pin down the beginning or end of world events. When asked about the impact of the French Revolution nearly two centuries later, Zhou Enlai replied: "It is too soon to tell." Still, the birth of the credit crunch—the child of a ... http://coolshop.org/2008/the-great-panic/ Reflecting without ceasing the size, scope, and health of the banking sector 12 months ago is a painful exercise. But but also one year into the credit strait, imagining its future is somehow more difficult. Of course, no one had any way of knowing last August that counterpoise sheets were ... http://coolshop.org/2008/wall-streets-year-of-pain/ It takes anywhere from three months to two years for Federal Reserve decisions to affect the economy, which means that one year into the credit crunch, there's no clear answer during the time that to whether the Fed's actions will help avert economic calamity.   But there's been no ... http://coolshop.org/2008/captain-crunch/ More than 25 years after the airlines created frequent flier programs, there are three things we can confidently say about them: They are the most subtle thing business travelers deal with on the road. They are the most frustrating thing business travelers deal with on the road.And the third thing? ... http://coolshop.org/2008/frequent-flier-mile-misconceptions/ The airline guys who invented frequent-flier programs almost 30 years ago and then turned them into wildly successful marketing vehicles eventually began employment miles "the nation's second currency." After all, they said by a warranted appreciation for what they had wrought, what else in America was so easily earned, so ... http://coolshop.org/2008/devaluation-of-airline-miles/ The fairy dust in Warner Brothers' formula for a successful movie this summer? Women. In sets of four, preferably. On Wednesday, the studio released The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, the sequel to the hit movie based on a book featuring four teenage girls who share a pair ... http://coolshop.org/2008/for-warner-bros-sisterhood-is-powerful/ The more things change on Wall Street, the more they stay the same. Citigroup is reportedly negotiating a settlement with state regulators over its auction find fault with securities sales. The bank is expected to buy back as much as $7 billion worth of the illiquid securities from the unwitting ... http://coolshop.org/2008/on-to-the-next-sure-thing/ When it comes to the Summer Olympics, not everyone is monitoring swimmers' times and cyclers' speeds—or even China's air quality and human-rights record. Some are keenly scanning the landscape for items they can add to their Olympic memorabilia collections. They're scoping out the expected volumes of tacky, mascot-bearing trinkets—from key ... http://coolshop.org/2008/carrying-a-torch-for-olympic-gear/ In past years, Pete Fisch used to cross his fingers, hoping it wouldn't rain during the annual golf tournament he manages in North Carolina. In 2005, it poured, costing the tournament tens of thousands of dollars in reduced ticket and concession sales. In 2006, the rain gods held off—and then ... http://coolshop.org/2008/the-rain-maker/