Articles by Jack Spence

Like most parents in North America, when it comes to getting gifts for our kids we are always inclined to get the newest, or the hottest, or the flashiest. This year the model with buzz was the iPod Touch.

This year as thousands kids go back to school, it is likely they we'll see more and more of them with that familiar white wire hanging from their ears. What it'll mean is that you, like thousands of other parents, went shopping for an iPod as a back to school 'helper'.

Recession. Mention it out loud and some business people start to talk about down-sizing and belt tightening. Then other business people see this reaction and start to do the same. I mean, isn't it only common sense that come the recession, everything has to come to a halt All wagons should be circled All hatches battened down During the last recession - what I like to call the 'big recession' - in 1990, I was running a coffee shop franchise.