More Southern California retailing innovation

At the Ralph’s in Chatsworth:

A retailing concept that will soon sweep the nation

On Third Street in L.A. I didn’t actually go inside, but according to the store’s website it “carries the definitive collection of designer pet collars, leashes, beds, toys, treats and bags along with one-of-a-kind gift items for toddlers and tots.” And while we’re at least halfway on the subject of dogs:

If Detroit made cars that looked like this …

… it would make really funny-looking cars. Another in my continuing series of vacation photos, this one of what used to be a 1993 Ford Thunderbird:

The Curious Capitalist on vacation

I’m on vacation this week (not so sure about next week just yet). It’s a visit-the-family vacation, not a tropical island vacation, so I’ll be living in the civilized world and reading the paper and may feel compelled to write things here occasionally. Even if I don’t, though, I will post vacation photos. This is [...]

India is just trying to reclaim its former position of global economic primacy

From an essay by historian William Dalrymple in Time Asia (thanks to Matthew Rees for the tip): At their heights during the 17th century, the subcontinent’s fabled Mughal emperors were rivaled only by their Ming counterparts in China. For their contemporaries in distant Europe, they were potent symbols of power and wealth. In Milton’s Paradise [...]

And another thing: shaky markets

I also wrote the opening mini-essay in this week’s magazine (we here at Time call it “The Moment”). It’s online here, but it’s so short that I might as well just post the whole thing: It was the stock market’s worst month in three years. But the events of the last few days of July [...]

New column: China syndrome

I have a column in the new Time, with a New Orleans floodwall on the cover, and online here. It begins: The Chinese executives were in New York City for a week of business-school classes. Even before economist Glenn Hubbard–dean of Columbia Business School and former chief of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers–finished teaching [...]

Thinking more subversive thoughts about whether capital gains really deserve a tax break

A few weeks ago, The Epicurean Dealmaker declared that: If any of you PE knuckleheads piss off Congress so much with your lame and pathetic special pleading that they decide to eliminate capital gains tax treatment altogether, you’d better find a deep, dark hole to run and hide in. I don’t know about Congress, but [...]

Hedging the risk of losing your job to India

Genpact, the former GE division that got the whole India call-center thing going a decade ago, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange today. Worried that your job might be moved to Gurgaon? Buy a few shares of G and prepare to profit from your own misfortune! Now if only I’d thought to hedge [...]

NYC morning: a temple to Apple and a healthcare-reform killer

I ate breakfast this morning at the Regency Hotel, famed morning meeting place of New York’s political movers and shakers. I’d never eaten there before, and was very excited until I realized that I have no idea what most of New York’s political movers and shakers look like. My only positive IDs were of Manhattan [...]