Some links and some thoughts

1. "And one Bund to rule them all, one Bund to find them, one Bund to bring them all and in darkness bind them."  After reading through the others at the link, I can't help but think of a Smeagol type character muttering "My union".

2. The failure of JC Penny to win customers over with a system of transparent prices versus a system of variable prices through a variety of sales, coupons and other deals funded with a higher non-sale price price doesn't show that policies of confusion are always optimal. Certainly this is the best way for some stores to utilize price discrimination and keep more of their customers happy, but one of the unacknowledged problems faced by JC Penny is that some of their competitors, TJ Max & Marshalls for instance, are already in the "always low prices with no sales" niche. It's not that there isn't a customer base who prefers consistently low prices with less games, it's that these people did not shop at JC Penny in the first place. In changing their policy JC Penny scared away the bargain hunters, charged lower prices to the less price sensitive customers and apparently failed to win over customers from the company already competing in the "always low prices" niche. The extra transparency might or might not be appreciated by shoppers, but it wasn't appreciated enough to transform the behavior of JC Penny's current shoppers or bring in shoppers from other stores.

3. I should probably explain why I'm thinking about niches right now. The rest of the blog is great too, let's hope he keeps it up this time.

4. As long as I'm promoting insightful blogs by my friends, you should also read about a potential new platform for innovation. The idea of 3d printers has been around for a while, but just like computers in the 60's and 70's it hasn't yet had a large impact on the economy. This seems like one of the spaces to watch. It's not heavily regulated like some other promising fields (such as the many things going on in medicine), efficiency of the products is improving and there will be many uses down the road when the technology reaches a certain efficiency and cost point. 3d printers have the potential to impact areas ranging from an easy method of procurement for general household or business goods to being the backbone of mostly automatic multipurpose factories that can quickly respond to changes in the marketplace.