This item caught my eye because it hit a nostalgic note.  I haven't seen a Woolworths store over her in I don't know how long, I remember shopping at Woolworth (n the U.S.) and Ben Franklin's and other so called 'five and dime' stores when I was a girl.  I bought my first needlework projects and supplies at such stores.  I would bet that a couple of my wooden hoops date that far back.  They had piles of thread, floss, notions, and printed pillowcases, table scarves, doilies and table cloths.  The BBC is reporting that all 807 stores on that side of the pond will close before January 5. 

CBCNews is reporting that Canada could lose half a million jobs if the Big Three car makers go down.  The Canadian government has reached a deal with the manufacturers to provide $3.3 billion contingent on the $14 billion Washington is still trying to arrange.  To beat a dead horse, THIS is precisely the problem with globalization--the problem no one talked about or even thought about all the years one administration after another pushed globalization with promises of an economic Paradise to come from it.  I should have said 'the major problem' since there are other big problems with globalization that we have failed to see before.  But this one is enough for the moment.

According to the International Herald Tribune, Americans weren't the only  people treating their homes as ATMs.  British consumers were doing the same and the same problems are rippling through the British economy.  I wonder if wages for working class Britons have shown the same pattern for the last 30 years--an adjusted for inflation decline.