Best Buy recently removed e-mail support from its web site, a move the company said was designed to improve response and to give customers the kind of interactions they seek. The problem with this change is twofold.

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, have partnered once again to bring the retail real estate industry The University of Shopping Centers, on the campus of the Wharton School, March 4-6, 2013, in Philadelphia. The program will feature three new learning tracks, including the Executive track, taught by Wharton professors.

A growing chorus of economists, engineers and business leaders are warning that the evisceration of the manufacturing work force over the last 30 years might not have scarred just Detroit and the Rust Belt. It might have dimmed the country's capacity to innovate and stunted the prospects for long-term growth.