Maven: The Burden I Must Bear

Well, guess what?

Results came out on Thursday and November's sales were not great. That probably indicates that Black Friday was not too profitable. Gap (GPS), Wal-Mart (WMT) and J.C. Penny (JCP) all disappointed pretty well.

Pier One (PIR) and the Sharper Image (SHRP) came in roughly the same, but Limited (LTD), Target (TGT) and a few others did well.

But for investors, despite all the talk of crowds and sales, profits are all they care about. I still think, incidentally, that we are going to have a decent Christmas season. Despite the Black Friday coverage, I think holiday sales are much more spread out across the month-long holiday period than they used to be.

And before leaving to rest instead of doing some holiday shopping myself, I want to point you to BusinessWeek's current cover story. It's about the big commitment toward flex-time at Best Buy (BBY).

Flex-time occurs, in this computerized world, when a company says that what counts is what you produce and you can do it from home. It has advantages (naps, lack of accountability) and disadvantages (naps, lack of accountability).

But the business media should begin to look at -- and you should begin to think about -- the larger picture. More specifically: Are flex hours leading the lower growth in wages? In other words, in exchange for more time with family, are people effectively getting paid less? It could help explain lower growth in real wages without stepping on the economy's biggest strength and politician's biggest bogeyman: globalization. And can flex time also actually be contributing to the productivity increases? Speaking of which, it's time for The Business Press Maven to nap.

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