<smugness>I should chuck software and go into finance.</smugness> Read this:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081112/best_buy_outlook.html

I'd say it's optimistic to think we'll still see those big blue price tags and hordes of untrained, just-hired blue-shirted recent high school grads pacing nervously around on the floor for too long into 2009. My money's on them not making it past Q1 of 2009.

They're not alone, though. SBUX will survive, but they will never be the huge giant of overpriced questionably-obtained caffeine drinks they used to be. The only thing that will save them is the fact that they sell a popular but legal and highly-addictive drug.

In contrast, the only thing propping up the USD at this point is the fact that every other major currency is also sucking canal water. If it weren't for the fact that the EUR is falling even faster than the USD, we'd be polishing the shoes of visiting French businessmen right now instead of smugly continuing to make jokes about them. Speaking of which, here's one: This Frenchman walks into a brothel, and... :>)