Trade in Everything

Typepad has a nice feature that lets you schedule a post for publication at a later date, so I'm scheduling this for Christmas day.  Two items to note: From the FT, "Fir flies as Danish Xmas tree growers charged": Denmark’s Christmas tree growers, the biggest

The Boston Globe reports: ... America is one big discount bin, thanks to a weak dollar that slid this week to another record low against the euro. As a result, tourists are spending thousands to travel to the United States to snag blockbuster bargains on everything from iPods to designer clothes

The Economist reports: As in Somalia, so it is across the rest of Africa. Every week, far from England's freezing winter drizzle, tens of millions of Africans settle down in video shacks, bars and homes to watch the latest matches between England's top 20 football clubs.

The Economist provides the details: GLOBAL capitalism has worked many wonders, but where in the free world can one see 10,000 children dancing in synchronisation, dressed as eggs? Such weirdness makes North Korea, a basket-case state, a must for a certain sort of backpacker. Tourist visas have been available

I found this Bloomberg article on Fijian mercenaries very interesting from a trade perspective: Since the 1970s, this impoverished and remote remnant of the British Empire has positioned itself as a discount-soldier surplus store. Its best customer has been the United Nations' peacekeeping operations. Today, on the post-Sept. 11