InvestorMind

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Robert Shiller, an economics professor at Yale University and co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index, talks about the U.S. housing market. He speaks with Tom Keene on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance Midday." (Source: Bloomberg)

Yaron Brook discusses the economics of the Great Depression, with an explanation of the broken window fallacy, a common error in economics. This is excerpted from the Q&A at a lecture delivered by Dr. Brook on December 1, 2011, in Chicago, Illinois, titled "Why Bad Economics Won't Go Away."

Answer to a question from the Casey Research Summit: "Reserve Currency status--will the US lose it?"

This month, the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department reported that China imported 102,779 kilograms of gold from Hong Kong in November, an increase from October’s 86,299 kilograms. Beijing does not release gold trade figures, so for this and other reasons the Hong Kong numbers are considered the best indication of China’s gold imports. Analysts believe China bought as much as 490 tons of gold in 2011, double the estimated 245 tons in 2010. “The thing that’s caught people’s minds is the massive increase in Chinese buying,” remarked Ross Norman of Sharps Pixley, a London gold brokerage, this month. So who in China is buying all this gold? The People’s Bank of China, the central bank, has been hinting that it is purchasing. “No asset is safe now,” said the PBOC’s Zhang Jianhua at the end of last month. “The only choice to hedge risks is to hold hard currency—gold.” He also said it was smart strategy to buy on market dips. Analysts naturally jumped on his comment as proof

Slowly but surely, ever more physical gold is being removed from circulation in conventional channels. Yesterday, it was Sprott who a week after doing a follow on offering in his PSLV ETF (i.e., adding more physical), reported that he was going to buy an as of yet undisclosed amount of gold for PHYS. This came just as Venezuela completed the rapatriation of its gold from European vaults, which means that it is substantially ahead of all of its other international peers who confidently continue to hold their gold stashed away in vaults situated primarily in London and NY. From Bloomberg : "Venezuela today received the last shipment of gold bars in an operation that repatriated 160 tons of the South American country’s reserves of the metal held abroad, said Nelson Merentes, president of the country’s central bank. Fourteen tons of gold arrived at the Caracas airport today on a flight from Europe, Merentes said. The gold bars were transported in a caravan, broadcast on

Record industrial demand for silver and resurging investor interest is diminishing a supply surplus, driving the metal used in everything from solar panels to batteries into its best start to a year in almost three decades. Manufacturers will use 15,415 metric tons, 2.5 percent more than in 2011 and reducing the glut by 41 percent to 3,297 tons, Barclays Capital estimates. Investors may buy 2,000 tons through exchange-traded products, after selling 1,300 tons last year, Morgan Stanley predicts. Prices will average $37.50 an ounce in the fourth quarter, 13 percent more than now, the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 13 analysts shows. The metal rallied 22 percent since closing at an 11-month low in December, entering a bull market on mounting confidence that another global recession will be avoided even as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund cut their growth forecasts. Prices had plunged 44 percent in eight months, making it the most volatile of any metal tracked b

Solyndra, Ener1, and now Kaufman Bros - The current economy may not be very good at creating jobs, even minority-focused ones, but its track record in inverse job creation is rapidly becoming second to none. Bloomberg reports that "Kaufman Bros. LP, the minority-owned investment bank that helped unwind U.S. stakes in bailed-out financial companies, ceased operations as of yesterday, according to a notice posted on its website. Chief Executive Officer Benny Lorenzo told employees that New York-based Kaufman was closing immediately in a meeting yesterday after trading closed, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Neither Lorenzo nor Chief Financial Officer Gerard Durkin returned messages left on their office and mobile phones yesterday and today." More amusing is the following description: " The company, which also has offices in San Francisco, said it w

ZURICH, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The break-up of Switzerland's oldest bank Wegelin, involved in a row with U.S. authorities over tax cheats, became necessary when clients pulled 4 billion Swiss francs ($4.35 billion) of wealth, Der Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday, citing unspecified sources. Under pressure from the investigation, the 270-year-old institution moved assets of 21 billion Swiss francs ($22.9 billion) to a subsidiary Notenstein Privatbank, which was then bought by cooperative bank Raiffeisen. Wegelin is still left with U.S. assets under scrutiny from U.S. prosecutors. In his first interview since news of the sale broke on Friday, Wegelin head Konrad Hummler told the paper he had done the right thing at the right time. "We became the victims of a larger matter. I don't want to say more than that," he said in a separate interview. Citing unnamed sources, Der Sonntag said the purchase price for the bank's good assets was somewhere between 2.5 and

News out of Brussels last night was that a package is being put together that would haircut Greek bonds by 70%, thus only paying back 30 cents on the dollar to anyone holding Greek paper. This will set a precedent that will eventually be played out all over Europe. Full AP story HERE.   This is extremely bad, and will spell the end of the big U.S. banks and the financial system in total. But EVERYONE needs to understand credit default swaps (CDS) first. CDS are insurance policies that investors have traded – very similar to OPTIONS for my old clients and cattle people out there. Buying a CDS is essentially like buying a put. The buyer pays a premium, or fee, to the writer, or seller of the CDS that says that the seller will guarantee and make whole the buyer’s position in a specific bond IF the entity behind the bond (such as Greece) defaults. In exchange for paying the premium and being made whole after a default, the buyer of the CDS surrenders the bond position

If anyone is tired of the daily European soap opera with surrealistic tragicomic overtones, they can simply shift their gaze to the 8th largest economy in the world: the insolvent state of California, whose controller just told legislators has just over a month worth of cash left. From the Sacramento Bee: " California will run out of cash by early March if the state does not take swift action to find $3.3 billion through payment delays and borrowing , according to a letter state Controller John Chiang sent to state lawmakers today. The announcement is surprising since lawmakers previously believed the state had enough cash to last through the fiscal year that ends in June ." ....uh, oops? But sure, fix the problem of excess debt by more "borrowing" why not. As for the math: "But Chiang said additional cash management solutions are needed because state tax revenues are $2.6 billion less than what Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers assumed in their

Breaking News: January 30, 2012. In this unedited interview with Ellis Martin, Jim Sinclair reveals an impending undeclared default of 5 major US banks this week per the ISDA International Swaps and Derivatives Association related to events in Europe. Listen and learn.

This animated short film reveals the insidious and fraudulent nature of the Federal Reserve System. It explains basic concepts, historical facts, and ways out in a easy and fun to understand format.

Ellis Martin and David Morgan visit at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference where there was record attendance, portending untold investor interest in Canadian Junior Mining Companies and precious metals in general, the likes of which have not been seen previously. Mr. Morgan forecasts another leg up in silver and gold.

Part 1 of January 28, 2012 interview with Ranting Andy Hoffman.

http://usawatchdog.com/ - Print baby print—you wonder why gold has been rising in price? The Fed announced this week it may stimulate the economy soon. The so-called "recovery" looks like it's on the rocks, and that's why the Federal Reserve also announced its near zero interest rate policy will be extended through 2014. Billionaire investor George Soros is scaring the heck out of everybody with his dark comments about the economy's possible collapse, and riots in Europe and the U.S. he thinks are coming. He actually said he's worried about "survival." Things must be getting pretty bad if he is saying this type of stuff publicly. The Middle East is a mess with ongoing revolts in Egypt and Syria. More sanctions are hitting Iranian oil, and Iran is, once again, threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz. About 20% of the world's crude oil is shipped through this narrow passageway every year. Closing it will most certainly bring chaos to a very fragi

From Yahoo! Finance . Gold is getting its groove back and it's taking the rest of the commodities along with it. The precious yellow metal rose 4.1% last week to $1,732.20 an ounce; the highest close since December 7. The bulk of this latest burst of energy in commodity prices directly coincided with the Federal Reserve's policy statement last Wednesday. While much of the Fed's details were similar to the previous release, they dropped a bombshell by extending the outlook for near zero interest rates through late 2014. The extension of the "free money" deadline caused a feeding frenzy in all asset classes, a sure sign money on the sidelines was coming back into riskier assets. "You can tell by the way the markets traded that people were caught off guard," says Rich Ilczyszyn, trader and founder of iiTrader.com about the Fed's statement. "This to me gives the green light for gold specifically, and a lot of commodities." But not all c

Jon Corzine, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, and former CEO of MF Global is seen with Vice-President Joe Biden during a campaign speech in 2010. VP Biden reveals that economists asked the Obama Transition Team when would they schedule a bank holiday, and they contacted Corzine for advice. I wonder if VP Joe Biden would be saying the same thing now.

In what is likely a long overdue move, Iran has finally decided to give Europe a harsh lesson in game theory. Instead of letting Euro-area politicians score brownie points at its expense by threatening to halt imports and cut off the Iranian economy, the Iranian government will instead propose a bill calling for an immediate halt to oil deliveries to Europe . The move, with most reports citing the Iranian news agency Mehr, has come about in response to the EU agreement to impose sanctions against Iran, which were announced earlier this week. And why not? After all if Europe is indeed serious, sooner or later Iran will be cut off but in the meantime experience significant policy uncertainty, which is precisely what the flipflops on the ground need. The one thing that Europe, however is forgetting, is that all that whopping 0.8 Mb/d in imports will simply find a new buyer.Quickly. So with China, India and Russia already having bilateral agreements with Iran in place, we ar

It was tried previously (several times) under "slightly different" circumstances, and failed. Yet when it comes to taking over a country without spilling even one drop of blood, and converting its citizens into debt slaves, Germany's Merkel may have just succeeded where so many of her predecessors failed. According to a Reuters exclusive, " Germany is pushing for Greece to relinquish control over its budget policy to European institutions [ZH: read ze Germans] as part of discussions over a second rescue package, a European source told Reuters on Friday." Reuters add: "There are internal discussions within the Euro group and proposals, one of which comes from Germany, on how to constructively treat country aid programs that are continuously off track, whether this can simply be ignored or whether we say that's enough, " the source said.' So while the great distraction that is the Charles Dallara "negotiation" with Hedge Fun

James Turk speaking at the 2012 Vancouver Resource Investment Conference on January 23, 2012.

The New York Federal Reserve Bank came out with a publication called " The Key to the Gold Vault " show the gold that is in held in the vault of Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It's very interesting to read. Here's the link to the PDF .

With gold and silver exploding to the upside on the Fed announcement, today King World News interviewed legendary Jim Sinclair, to get his take on where things are headed. Sinclair told KWN he now expects mainstream entities to enter the gold market. Here is what Sinclair had to say: “Today is an important day. There are many days we talk but this is a mile-marker. What the Fed did today is they turned on the light of what will be QE to infinity. Today the light went on with regards to the intentions of the Fed. They did that for very specific reasons, we have troubles people can’t see and this is one of the ways out.” Jim Sinclair continues: The announcement itself is a game-changer because of the way this game is going to change, Eric. I think you are going to see a very significant change amongst investors, corporations and companies with extra capital and people of the mainstream. You’re going to find gold being accepted as a hedge against what’s going on by entities,

Today James Turk informed King World News that a Greek default is imminent and investors should expect this rolling financial crisis to continue to propel gold higher. Here is what Turk had to say about the ongoing crisis and what to expect going forward: “I think the key item today is a Greek default looks imminent. The various parties are in the final stages of negotiating terms. They have now reached an impasse. Basically, the German government and the international institutions involved are insisting that the private lenders take a bigger loss and lower interest rate on the new bonds they are to receive.” James Turk continues: “Ironically, Greece itself is in the middle of this tug of war. But regardless of the outcome, what the negotiators are missing is that Greece does not have the capacity to repay even the reduced amounts being negotiated. So some kind of default looks inevitable, Eric, which in turn will ramp up the pressure on other over-leveraged governments arou

From Yahoo Finance . WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve has downgraded its outlook for U.S. economic growth this year but is slightly more optimistic about the unemployment rate. The Fed expects the economy to grow between 2.2 percent and 2.7 percent in 2012, according to its updated economic forecasts released Wednesday. That's down from November's forecast of between 2.5 percent and 2.9 percent. Many economists expect Europe will suffer a recession this year, which will slow U.S. growth. Earlier Wednesday, the Fed noted the weak but growing economy when it said it doesn't plan to raise its benchmark interest rate until late 2014. And some members wanted to push that back even further, according to new interest rate projections released with the quarterly forecasts. Still, the Fed said it expects unemployment to fall low as 8.2 percent. That's an improvement from November's bottom rate of 8.5 percent. In December, the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 p

I apologize for the lack of posting yesterday. I was attending the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference so I was not able to post anything. However, I got some audio and videos from speakers that I will be posting soon.

Global Debt... a Dummies version.

The commercials increased their naked short silver positions by a net 1,320 additional contracts (6.6 million ounces) in the week ending 2/17/12, indicating that the cartel is yet far from throwing in the towel in the manipulation of silver. Increasing shorts into price rallies has been the cartel's SOP over the length of this bull run, and we can expect the manipulation to continue until the large commercial shorts step aside on a major price rally, and refuse to add to shorts into price strength. Read more

With gold holding on to gains above the $1,650 level, today King World News interviewed John Embry, Chief Investment Strategist of the $10 billion strong Sprott Asset Management, to get his take on where he sees gold headed from here. Embry informed KWN that gold was very close a major breakaway move to the upside. Here is what Embry had to say about the situation: “I’ve been of the mind for a considerable period of time that the gold price really wouldn’t accelerate to the upside until such time as the physical market finally overwhelmed the paper market. But I think we’re reaching the stage now where there is mounting buying of physical because people are starting to realize the paper price is fraudulent.” John Embry continues: “We’re very close now to that important moment where the physical market actually does overwhelm the paper market, and as this takes place you will see massive moves in the price of gold. I will finally be convinced the physical market has gained asce

By Marin Katusa, Casey Research To many walking the planet, fracking has a seriously bad reputation. Thanks to hyperbole and misinformation, fracking opponents have convinced a lot of people that the operators who drill and then hydraulically fracture underground rock layers thumb their noses at and even hate the environment. Anti-fracking claims may be twists on reality – for example, that a legislative loophole makes fracking exempt from the America's Safe Drinking Water Act, when really this federal legislation never regulated fracking because it is a state concern. Then there's the completely absurd, such as the idea that frac operators are allowed to and regularly do inject frac fluids directly into underground water supplies. We decided to set the record straight by using facts, not playing on emotion like many of the frac-tivists do. It's important because unconventional oil and gas constitute an increasingly pivotal part of the world's energy s

Recently I received a comment from someone who claimed former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has suggested we should abandon the Federal Reserve and move back to gold or adopt a "currency board." Does that mean investors should take another look at gold? At buying gold-related stocks and funds such as Sandstorm (SNDXF.PK), Royal Gold (RGLD), Global X (GGGG), Direxion (DUST) and Market Vectors (GDX)? The Pros and Cons of Gold On the plus side for gold we all know it is virtually indestructible and that the supply only increases slowly as new gold is mined. On the other hand, we also know that the world is changing and that, unlike bonds and other assets, gold earns no income and has costs associated with its storage. Today there is a market for gold and it exists for a number of reasons - because gold is demanded as a "safe haven" or store of value, for jewelry particularly in countries such as India, for certain industrial applications, and for fals

Joe Martin, founder of Cambridge House International (widely known as "Canada's Investment Conference Company"), joins Kitco News' Daniela Cambone to discuss the upcoming 2012 Vancouver Resource Investment Conference (Jan. 22-23, 2012), which he says promises to be the "investment conference of the decade". I will be attending this show. This should be exciting.

Saw this report today. Pretty interesting.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Treasury on Tuesday started dipping into federal pension funds in order to give the Obama administration more credit to pay government bills. "I will be unable to invest fully" the federal employees retirement system fund beginning Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a letter to Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on Wednesday on the Obama administration's request to raise the country's legal debt limit to $16.394 trillion. However, unless the lower chamber and the Senate are able to shore up enough votes to block the White House request, the debt limit will be increased by $1.2 trillion next Friday and a repeat of last year's debt ceiling debacle will be averted. Geithner said Treasury started suspending reinvestments in a federal pension fund known as the G-Fund -- a tool Treasury has had to employ six times over the past 20 years in order to keep the

In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, cover the great unmentionables: Ron Paul, Vermin Supreme and blackstonesucks.com. In the second half of the show, Max and Stacy discuss Treasury Secretary Geithner trying to coax China into committing economic suicide and learning your maths in America by counting slaves.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India hiked its gold import duty by 90 percent and doubled the tax on silver on Tuesday as the world's biggest consumer of bullion seeks to increase revenues, sending futures prices higher and hitting shares of jewellers. India changed the import duty on gold to 2 percent of value from the earlier flat 300 rupees per 10 grams and that of silver to 6 percent of value from 1,500 rupees per kilogram, the government said in a statement. Gold has soared this year, with international dollar prices touching a record of $1,920.30 per ounce in early September and Indian domestic prices hitting a peak in early December. The duty change would translate to about 570 rupees per 10 grams for gold, said Prithiviraj Kothari, president of the Bombay Bullion Association. The silver import duty could equate to 3,000 rupees per kg at current prices, he added. The BBA is sticking to its forecast for imports to fall 50 percent in January to March after they slipped about 8 per

Sprott Asset Management has filed to launch a physical platinum and palladium exchange traded fund, adding to its stable of precious metals ETFs. The Canadian firm manages Sprott Physical Gold Trust (NYSEArca: PHYS) and Sprott Physical Silver Trust (NYSEArca: PSLV), which are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The funds are different from other precious metal ETFs in that investors can redeem large blocks of shares for physical delivery of the bullion. However, the closed-end funds can trade at premiums or discounts to net asset value. [Sprott Physical Silver Trust Trades at Premium] For example, Sprott Physical Silver Trust is trading at a premium of more than 20% to NAV, according to the company’s website. The silver fund holds nearly $700 million while Sprott Physical Gold Trust has over $2 billion. The new ETF will invest in platinum and palladium bullion. The proposed value of the ETF is $115 million, according to the Sprott filing, while the management fee wil

In last week's Metals, Mining, and Money , Jeff Clark estimated that given the magnitude of the correction that started last September, it may take until May 2012 for gold to reach a new high. This week let's take a look at how long it may take for silver to rebound. It's a commonly known fact that silver is more volatile than gold. Already in this decade, silver has risen by a factor of 12 from its ten-year low ($48.70 vs. $4.07), while gold has seen about a sevenfold climb ($255.95 vs. $1,895). This volatility – as you'll see in a minute – holds for corrections as well. On average, silver's retreats have been deeper and longer than gold's. The three big gold corrections we looked at last week averaged 22.8%. Take a look at the three biggest for silver, along with how long it's taken to recover and establish new highs. (Click on image to enlarge) The three biggest silver corrections in the current bull market average to 42.1%. Our recent

Today James Turk informed King World News that we are now headed into a vortex, and the Lehman event was a warm-up to a much deeper, widespread crisis and collapse which lies ahead. Here is how Turk described the warning signs and what to expect: “There are all of these warning signs out there and few people are paying attention. For example, hardly anyone cares that the US has lost its AAA rating and most dismiss it as a non-event. But even a cursory look at the US government’s financial position should raise investors concerns that it will not be able to meet all of its obligations.” James Turk continues: “Here in Europe there have been a slew of downgrades of sovereign debt, with France losing its AAA standing. Yet few question the solvency of the ECB, which has purchased over 200 billion euros worth of paper from governments whose credit ratings are seeing a steady series of downgrades. Another example is MF Global. Can people really believe the regulators and MF Global

Funny commercial by Swiss America. Note: I do not promote or endorse this company. I just thought the ad was funny.

The Schiff Report January 14, 2012.

Time for the dominos to fall where they may: head of sovereign ratings at S&P Kraemer spoke on Bloomberg TV, and said the following: KRAEMER: GREECE, CREDITORS `RUNNING OUT OF TIME' IN DEBT TALKS -BBG KRAEMER: EURO LEADERS HAVEN'T TACKLED CORE UNDERLYING PROBLEMS -BBG KRAEMER SAYS EUROPE MUST DEAL WITH IMBALANCES, COMPETITIVENESS -BBG And the punchline: KRAEMER SAYS HE BELIEVES GREECE WILL DEFAULT SHORTLY - RTRS The only thing he did not add is that the default will be Coercive. What happens next is anyone's guess, but whatever it is it is certainly priced in. Also, let's not forget that the inability of the market to react to any news ever again is most certainly priced in. Original source

On Wednesday, Hong Kong reported that their gold imports reached record heights this month as investors rushed to the precious metal before the Lunar New Year – a weeklong holiday beginning on January 23 – in order to "hedge against financial turmoil." According to Bloomberg : Demand for gold is climbing in China as investors seek to protect their wealth against slumping property prices and equity markets amid an inflation rate above 4 percent. The nation overtook India in the third quarter as the largest gold jewelry market, according to the World Gold Council. The country is also the biggest producer. Bullion rose as much as 0.9 percent to $1,647.45 an ounce today, the highest since Dec. 13. Ten years ago, China became part of the World Trade Organization and they've grown quite rapidly in the past decade. They've succeeded in doing so by exporting relatively cheap goods. At the same time, the Yuan has been “c losely pegged to the Dollar - ensuring that de

Standard & Poor's is expected to cut the credit ratings of Italy, Spain and Portugal by two notches and downgrade France and Austria by one notch, according to several reports. At the same time, S&P is expected to spare Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg in its long-awaited adjustment of euro zone sovereign ratings. The French newspaper Les Echos reported the expected downgrades, and France's finance minister confirmed that his country would be downgraded one notch from its triple-A debt rating. An Italian news agency has also reported that the Italian government has been notified of an imminent downgrade by S&P. An announcement is expected to come around 4:30 pm ET, after the US stock market has closed. "Remain alert tonight when U.S. markets close," one euro zone source told Reuters. US stocks slumped in reaction, though were well off their lows, while European shares closed lower. In December, S&P placed the ratings of 15

With oil near $100, gold and silver on the move and many people worried about what is going to happen with Iran and the Straits of Hormuz, today King World News interviewed resident expert Jim Rickards. Rickards negotiated the release of US hostages from Iran in 1981. His advisory clients include government directorates around the world and he is heavily involved in US national security issues and the Department of Defense. Rickards has also gained international recognition for his deadly accurate predictions regarding moves by central planners. This is what Rickards had to say about the situation in Iran: “Eric, this really could not be more serious. The fact that we, meaning the United States, are on a path to a war with Iran is very clear at this point. It does seem the countdown has begun and it’s coming to a head sooner rather than later.” Jim Rickards continues: “Things are moving very quickly. General Martin Dempsey, who is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

By Doug Casey, Casey Research Everyone knows that the US government is bankrupt and has been for many years. But I thought it might be instructive to see what its current cash-flow situation actually is. At least insofar as it's possible to get a clear picture. As you know, the so-called Super Committee recently tried to come up with a plan to cut the deficit by $1.5 trillion and failed completely. To anyone who understands the nature of the political process, the failure was, of course, as predictable as it was shameful. What's even more shameful, though, is that the sought-after $1.5 trillion cut wasn't meant to apply to the annual budget but to the total budget of the next 10 years – a fact that is rarely mentioned. Now whenever the chattering classes talk about cuts, it's always about cuts over the course of 10 years. Which is a dodge, partly because most of the supposed cuts will be scheduled for the end of the period, but also because new programs, new emerg

A satirical short film taking a look at the national debt and how it applies to just one family.

Following today's increasingly more adverse news for Sears, which saw primary vendor funder CIT cut ties with the Eddie Lampert mega investment, it was only a matter of time before the market realized that the jig for the once bankrupt retailer may be up, and a Chapter 22 is the only possible option. Sure enough, the first to respond to this is the rating agency that not only is capable of forward looking activity, unlike all the other NRSROs, and also managed to get Jefferies to admit it had a far greater European exposure than the market was comfortable with (resulting in a major cut in gross and net, and a far greater transparency into its balance sheet). As of minutes ago, Egan Jones just downgraded Sears Holdings to the lowest rating just above default: C, from CC. From Egan-Jones : More problems - CIT's cutting factor financing for SHLD hurts. Like the book retailers (Barnes&Noble and Borders) electronic retailers (Circuit City and Blockbuster), SHL