It's Official: Borders Long Goodbye Over

They officially announced that with no-one showing up to the auction and with their stalking horse backing out (bucking them off?), they will acquiese to the "winning" bid of the liquidators.  Surely part of this sad fall -- sadder still for this poster from Ann Arbor -- comes from missteps that we can see in hindight failed to appreciate the profound transformations in this retail sector over the past decade plus.  But part of it too is an insurmountable change in retail trends fueled by the coming of age of online shopping.  Yes, Barnes and Noble survives for now, but will they still be a major bricks and morter presence a decade from now?  I have my doubts.  Sure, there will always be niche needs -- just as some travel agents persist in serving corporate clients -- so I don't see Aunt Agatha's Mystery Booksore in Ann Arbor going anywhere soon.  But the bread-and-butter, consumer travel agency around even still in the 1990s could serve as the example of what's to become the bricks and mortar mega-book store: a close chapter in the U.S. economy.

Super-Compulsory Counterclaims! Supreme Court Edition

Greetings, Slipsters.  2011 will bring, alas, my retirement from the blog, although I may occasionally make intermittent guest posts in my emeritus capacity going forward.  So what better way to go out than commenting on the Anna Nicole Smith case up at SCOTUS (sub nom. Stern v. Marshall – or Marshall II, since this a return engagement by these parties)?  I will explain why CA9 will and should be reversed after the break, although the case is sufficiently complex it may require several postings.