Rebuilding the Economy » Laurent Belsie

US foot-dragging dims hopes for world trade deal

Prospects for reaching a deal in the eight-year old Doha Round of global trade negotiations were remote; now, they’re truly distant. On Nov. 30, trade ministers of the 153-nation World Trade Organization (WTO) hold their ministerial conference in Geneva , but their agenda doesn’t even mention negotiations. It is officially defined ...

Best deals from Black Friday 2009 ads: Use your smartphone

Using Black Friday ads to get the best deals could be grueling. If your best sales intelligence came from printed retail circulars, it meant organizing and comparing long lists. If you used an online deals aggregator, you still didn't have a good way of transporting that knowledge to the ...

Um, Virginia, Santa’s not getting his mail in North Pole, Alaska

Fewer children will get their letters to Santa answered this year. Tight budgets and tougher privacy protections have forced the US Postal Service to scale back its Operation Santa program, where volunteers help postal workers answer children's letters to St. Nick. Some residents of North Pole, Alaska, think the post office ...

On Black Friday sales 2009, can Amazon compete with Wal-Mart?

Until Wednesday, Wal-Mart was siccing its legal team on websites of all types to keep its Black Friday 2009 deals from lighting up cyberspace. At the same time, Radio Shack was e-mailing scanned copies of its "Shack Friday" circular to the news media. The lesson? Wal-Mart runs the Black Friday show. ...

Wal-Mart Black Friday sales for 2009: The story behind the leak

Updated 11:15 a.m. EST with comment from Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart’s Black Friday sales for 2009 are now alive in full color on the Internet. From door-buster TVs to a $198 laptop to a $59 GPS system, the retail titan’s Black Friday plans have been laid bare at last. Where just this past weekend ...

Eggo waffles: Kellogg allots scarce supply

As Eggo Waffles become rare on store shelves, due to problems at Kellogg bakeries, the company is rationing them -- and may continue to do so through mid-2010. “We are working around the clock to restore Eggo store inventories to normal levels as quickly as possible,” wrote Kellogg spokeswoman Kris Charles ...

Housing starts: Don’t panic over October’s plunge

The unexpected decline in housing starts is a stark reminder that America's housing recovery is going to be slow. But there's no cause for panic.

Eggo waffles facing shortage until mid-2010

Dark days are coming for at-home American breakfasts. Eggo waffles, a pillar of the frozen breakfast-food market, are disappearing from store shelves. That's because a summer flood at Kellogg's Atlanta factory and equipment problems at a Rossville, Tenn., plant have hampered production of the popular Eggo. And the shortage may last ...

At French hamster hotel, live like a rodent

In Nantes, France, you can live in a hamster hotel. For 99 euros ($148) a night, guests can sleep like a hamster (clean sheets, but the bed is next to hamster litter), drink like a hamster, eat grains like a hamster. And what furry pet hotel -- even one in an ...

Black Friday 2009: Are Black Friday’s years numbered?

Several weeks before Black Friday 2009, Wal-Mart announced an in-store price bonanza including a reduced price on the popular Xbox 360 gaming console beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday morning. Around 8 p.m. Friday evening, Michael Brim, founder of BFads.net, got a call from Sears: They were matching Wal-Mart’s prices — and ...