| Cheer up, things aren’t that bad
The latest, published a few days ago, shows economists expect a slowdown but not a recession. Four months after the credit crisis broke, the average growth forecast for 2008 is 1.9%. That is slow but not painfully so, and slightly better than 2005, when Britain managed only 1.8% growth. True, there is one forecast of outright recession, with Peter Warburton of Economic Perspectives expecting the economy to contract by 0.1%. He, however, is balanced by the optimists at MacroEcon.com, who predict 3% growth. Most forecasts are clustered around 2%. There are, of course, any number of jokes about economic forecasters, sometimes involving unfavourable comparisons with meteorologists, but they will have collectively made a huge error if the economy were to be badly derailed next year.
Ruling: TJX No Longer a Federal Case
The largest credit card data breach in history is now a matter for a Massachussetts court.The worst credit card data breach in history is a federal case no more. A federal judge overseeing the TJX cases in effect fired himself as TJX judge on Tuesday, and ordered the case out of federal court and into Massachusetts state court. U.S. District Court Judge William Young also praised Visa as a "hero" because it conducted its own investigation and worked out a settlement with a class of plaintiffs. "I find this very significant, [that] theyve worked out a settlement with an opt-in class. Opt-in classes are very desirable," the judge said from the bench. The judge was referring to an agreement that Visa worked out with TJX where TJX would directly pay some of the plaintiffs banks.
High-Tech Shopping Carts Coming to Supermarkets
The system also uses radio-frequency identification to sense where the shopper's cart is in the store. The RFID data can help ShopRite and food makers understand shopping patterns, and the technology can also be used to send certain advertisements to people at certain points — an ad for 50 cents off Oreos, for example, when a shopper enters the cookie aisle. Microsoft said it is still working on how it will present commercials and coupons. Microsoft is also working with MediaCart and ShopRite to help advertisers reach potential consumers based on past grocery purchases, which are logged when they swipe their loyalty cards. "This is not all necessarily about bombarding consumers, about targeting advertising," said Scott Ferris, general manager of Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions group.
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