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• The Economy

  If we’re addicted to oil, our twelve-step program should begin with admitting that we have a problem.
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  • 011: Get Lost
  • Date: Jul 16 2008
  • Contributors: Chris Weller, Max Joseph, and Danielle Flug

• Oil: A History

  A short history of black gold, from the ancient Persian army's flaming oil-dipped arrows to today's piercing pain at the pump.
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  • 011: Get Lost
  • Date: Jul 14 2008
  • Contributors: Piece Studio

• Blacker-than-black Market

  In Ciudad del Este, Latin America’s lawless capital of contraband, $500 goes a long way.
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  • 011: Get Lost
  • Date: Jun 05 2008
  • Contributors: Sacha Feinman

• Retiring Gracefully

  
  
  American Express has a newish policy of phased retirement, which allows "soon-to-retire" employees to act as mentors to younger ones and pass down valuable skill sets that newer workers lack. From Business Week:
  
  "Rather than retiring and leaving the company at once, participants gradually give up their day-to-day responsibilities, while replacing some of their free time with activities like mentoring and teaching master classes to their successors. In addition, they get more time out of the office doing whatever they want—be it planning for life in retirement or doing charity work...It also helps them avoid some of the emotional and financial hurdles of sudden retirement."
  
  The Business Week piece is part of an ongoing case study. There are more videos (like the one above) here.
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  • Date: Aug 21 2008
  • Posted by Patrick James

• The Death Of The American Mall

  The American shopping mall, that shrine to bland, homogeneous commercialism, seems to be an endangered species. As WorldChanging reports, malls are falling into desuetude all over the nation. We’re not going to miss them much. Everything we found valuable about mall culture has been perfectly archived in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Clueless. And guess what all that old space is being used for? Art galleries and mixed-use pedestrian plazas. Awesome. Happy Monday, folks.
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  • Date: Aug 11 2008
  • Posted by Andrew Price

• A KFC Grows In Fallujah (Almost)

  Two weeks ago a report from a Marine public information officer trumpeted the establishment of Fallujah's first Kentucky Fried Chicken, carrying the picture above. Fox News picked up the story and ran with it. We're spreading democracy and popcorn chicken throughout the region! It's all gravy! KFC is the fried chicken in the gold mine—if it survives, things must be safe!
  
  
  
  But sadly, even Fox News' army of vigilant fact-checkers and guardians of veracity were duped. TPM Muckraker did some investigating and a Yum! Restaurants International spokesman told them: "This store is not approved by KFC International and we have working [sic] with the US Military to warn the troops of this situation." Watching this LiveLeak video of marines visiting the restaurant it seems pretty clear it's a knock-off.
  
  Thanks Nate!
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  • Date: Aug 05 2008
  • Posted by Andrew Price

• Online Retail Graveyard

  Aaaaand if this kind of thing really thrills you, you'll appreciate this web site dedicated entirely to dead malls. Thanks JBK, recreational mall scholar
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  • Date: Aug 13 2008
  • Posted by alexandra_m

• Doing Well By Doing Good - How Business Should Be!

  Lately, I’ve come to realize I qualify for being on the ‘lunatic-fringe of do-goodiness'. All my life, I’ve loved creating mutually-beneficial opportunities, and I tend to believe that most of us are this way – we’re happiest ‘doing well by doing good’. Sadly…too often the unfortunate few - who are clever and on the lunatic-fringe of bad-doing, tend to work their way into power and ruin things for the rest of us… Now, I’m standing up to represent the forces of good. I know more and more people are joining me. Seven years ago in Portland, Oregon, I founded DoughNation Services LLC – and became stunned to learn that not only had I founded a business, but apparently also created a new industry: donation services. The donation services industry proves ‘doing well by doing good’ is not only possible – it’s joyful. I believe this is the spirit that is meant to be at the center of how we conduct business locally, nationally and globally. DoughNation provides pickup, tax deduction documentation, and delivery for donations of quality clothing, furniture and household goods. Our most unique benefit is that the deductions we document for our clients actually get them back more money at tax time than they paid for service - usually at least 1½ again more than what they paid. Plus, we give people an easier way to help their community benefit from the good things they no longer use. There’s so much more in the donation services industry than this basic service. From working with families who had suffered the loss of a loved one, we created an amazing service called Gentle Disposition, where we clear an entire home through donation, recycling and disposal so that we can relieve that devastating burden and create as much benefit as possible from the things left behind. Similarly, we work with those who are downsizing to ease the stress of transition.. Walking this entrepreneurial road has been the most difficult journey for me ever – I never imagined it would be so difficult. Despite the hardships, build DoughNation and pioneering the donation services industry has been the most deeply fulfilling work I’ve ever done, and it was impossible for me to walk away from this wonderful work. Now, nearly seven years later, I’m so thankful I never quit. Two years ago I gained the best business partner I could imagine, Lorca Harrison, and with her we have begun reaching the next level, and the future looks bright. We have a nationwide vision for DoughNation and the donation services industry, and one day, I look forward to the joy of speaking before the national convention of the donation services industry. Until then….
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  • Date: Aug 07 2008
  • Posted by KimBreas

• Whatch'a gonna do?

  This is the situation that's drawn me to economics as a major. The hockey stick is going to be the symbol of our times, with exponential growth in so many areas equating exponential depletion in so many others. One of the fascinating things is how, despite everything, hunger is a political problem. Distribution most directly, but political most ultimately. Encroaching "resource peaks" are a consumption efficiency problem most directly, but a political problem ultimately. They are also technology challenges and since we've solved so many other challenges with technology we're tempted to rely on it. The analogy I like most is of a guy who was fat in high school but worked out a lot in order to make it on the football team so later he thinks can always do it again if he really needs to, even though he's becoming morbidly obese and a half-donut away from triple-bypass surgery. We got to the moon within a time-frame we set for ourselves and we win world wars and we built a country from nothing, so we can handle anything, right? So debt spirals out of control, numbers used to measure economic health and growth are changed in increasingly sneaky and dangerous ways (look up "hedonics" and you'll feel like the financial news show you watch totally cheated you), and we're at the wrong end of a housing market and credit bubble. Even GOLD could be overvalued right now. Smart financial policy, a major scaleback of the military industrial complex and a major increase in infrastructure investment and other domestic projects could save us. Bold technology investment would be part of that. Think Extra Bold, like mining asteroids. A lot of materials are difficult to mine because we have to dig so deep, but there's mountains of all kinds of inorganic, usually lighter metals. Sounds crazy, but communication satellites were laughable sci-fi 30 years before Sputnik. Just need the political will leadership.
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  • Date: Aug 07 2008
  • Posted by ConsumerX