” Every Day Low Price ” is the mantra at Walmart, and now it seems Best Buy is considering adopting the concept as it tries to compete with online retailers and get consumers to shop during non-promotional events. “We have to move rapidly in recognizing the transparency of pricing,” Mike Vitelli, executive vice president and co-head of the North America division at Best Buy told Bloomberg News . According to a Best Buy spokeswoman, any shift in pricing strategy is in the very early stages of discussion, and there are no more details to share at this time

Filed under: Green , Consumer Ally At some point in the mid-1980s, a pony-tailed upstate New York environmental activist named Jay Westerveld picked up a card in a South Pacific hotel room and read the following: “Save Our Planet: Every day, millions of gallons of water are used to wash towels that have only been used once. You make the choice: A towel on the rack means, ‘I will use again.’ A towel on the floor means, ‘Please replace.’ Thank your for helping us conserve the Earth’s vital resources.” The card was decorated with the three green arrows that make up the recycling symbol. Westerveld saw irony in the “save the towel” movement, because hotels waste resources in many different ways — and not washing as many linens saves the corporation money

The administration’s proposed revamp of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is actually an offering of multiple policy options, essentially passing the political hot potato to the Republicans. Problem is, any fix is sure to make mortgages costlier, with potential harm to the housing market. Continue reading Obama’s Mortgage Reforms: Stronger Standards but Higher Costs Obama’s Mortgage Reforms: Stronger Standards but Higher Costs originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sun, 13 Feb 2011 10:00:00

In the testosterone-laden enclaves of America’s business class, buzzwords tend to be a bit manly. Perhaps the best example is “tent pole,” a term that refers to a company’s most promising, prominent or profitable product — except when it refers to its biggest problem. Continue reading Buzzword of the Week: Tent Pole Buzzword of the Week: Tent Pole originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sun, 13 Feb 2011 09:00:00.

Filed under: Comfort Zone Investing You may not have felt it yet, but inflation is running rampant for certain commodities. Prices for some raw materials like cotton, oil, aluminum, tin and many others have skyrocketed in the last year.