Retail sales have fallen off a cliff. Retailers have gone to their landlords and demanded a big reduction in their rents. Some landlords have said Yes. Some have said No. Without hefty rent concessions, retailers are liquidating their inventory and closing their stores.

A friend had a clothing store in the Bronx. His family had run it over 30 years. Sales dropped 30% last year. He asked his landlord for a reduction in the rent. The landlord refused. My friend closed his store. I asked him, "Are you sad?"

He answered, "No way. I could kiss the landlord. This year sales in the neighborhood are down substantially. My landlord did me a huge favor. Now I get to play more tennis."

He's a good tennis player.

For more on what's happening in retailing, check out today's Wall Street Journal, "In Texas, There's No Business Like 'Going Out of Business. Owner Alters Rug Shop's Controversial Name but the Haggling Goes On and On." Click Wall Street Journal.

The Great Depression compared to the Great Recession. This is gruesome. Two economics professors -- Barry Eichengreen and Kevin O'Rourke -- compared them. Here are their latest findings:

* World industrial production continues to track closely the 1930s fall, with no clear signs of ‘green shoots’.

* World stock markets have rebounded a bit since March, and world trade has stabilized, but these are still following paths far below the ones they followed in the Great Depression.

* There are new charts for individual nations’ industrial output. The big-4 EU nations divide north-south; today’s German and British industrial output are closely tracking their rate of fall in the 1930s, while Italy and France are doing much worse.

* The North Americans (US & Canada) continue to see their industrial output fall approximately in line with what happened in the 1929 crisis, with no clear signs of a turn around.

* Japan’s industrial output in February was 25 percentage points lower than at the equivalent stage in the Great Depression. There was however a sharp rebound in March.

Here are their charts:

New figure 5: Industrial output, then and now:

Their summary:

It’s a Depression alright

Globally we are tracking or doing even worse than the Great Depression, whether the metric is industrial production, exports or equity valuations. Focusing on the US causes one to minimize this alarming fact. The “Great Recession” label may turn out to be too optimistic. This is a Depression-sized event.

That said, we are only one year into the current crisis, whereas after 1929 the world economy continued to shrink for three successive years. What matters now is that policy makers arrest the decline. We therefore turn to the policy response.

You can read their entire piece. Click here.

Depression era investment strategy: Cash is king. Liquidity is key. Stay short-term. We won't see big inflation for at least two years.

The new iPhone 3GS is a seriously better phone. It's blows BlackBerry away. I finally played with one yesterday.

What blew me away:

1. Its speed. It really is faster. You can feel it. I compared surfing the web on the iPhone on AT&T with surfing the web on a Verizon BlackBerry. The iPhone was much, much faster.

2. Its new camera. It will do video. And the video is really good quality.

3. Its speech recognition. You can say "Call Mom" and it will call Mom.

Meantime, apps for the iPhone at the Apple App Store continue to explode. There are now more than 50,000. From crossword puzzles to subways maps, to accessing the files on your remote PC, to converting currencies, to checking the weather, to checking how your customers are doing.

Apple sold a million iPhones in the first three days of its release. If you have an old iPhone, you must download the new 3.0 software. It's improved in many ways. Six million customers downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software in the first five days following its release. Meantime, the best news: Steve Jobs is back at work.

Wimbledon Tennis TV Schedule.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008
ESPN2
7 a.m.-5 p.m. (live) - Day 3
Tennis Channel
7 p.m. (highlights) - Prime Time

Thursday, June 26, 2008
ESPN2
7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. (live) - Day 4
Tennis Channel
7 p.m. (highlights) - Prime Time

Friday, June 27, 2008
ESPN2
7 a.m.-5 p.m. (live) - Day 5
Tennis Channel
7 p.m. (highlights) - Prime Time

Saturday, June 28, 2008
ESPN2
8 a.m.-noon (live); 3-7 p.m. (tape) - Day 6
NBC
12-3 p.m. (live) - Day 6
Tennis Channel
7 p.m. (highlights) - Prime Time

Sunday, June 29, 2008
ESPN2
3-6 p.m. (tape) - Highlights Week 1
NBC
12-3 p.m. (tape) - Highlights Week 1
Tennis Channel
7 p.m. (highlights) - Prime Time

Monday, June 30, 2008
ESPN2
7-10 a.m. (live); 1-6 p.m. (live/replay) - Fourth Round
NBC
10 a.m.-1 p.m. (live) - Fourth Round
Tennis Channel
7 p.m. (replay) - Fourth Round

Tuesday, July 1, 2008
ESPN2
7-10 a.m. (live); 1-5 p.m. (live/replay) - Women's Quarterfinals
NBC
10 a.m.-1 p.m. (live) - Women's Quarterfinals
Tennis Channel
7 p.m. (replay) - Prime Time

Wednesday, July 2, 2008
ESPN2
7-10 a.m. (live); 1-5 p.m. (live/replay)- Men's Quarterfinals
NBC
10 a.m.-1 p.m. (live) - Men's Quarterfinals
Tennis Channel
7 p.m. (replay) - Prime Time

Thursday, July 3, 2008
ESPN2
7-12 p.m. (live); 8-10 p.m. (highlights) - Women's Semifinals
NBC
12-5 p.m. (in all time zones) - Women's Semifinals
Tennis Channel
8-10 p.m. (replay) - Prime Time

Friday, July 4, 2008
ESPN2
7-12 p.m. (live); 12-3 a.m. (highlights) - Men's Semifinals
NBC
12-5 p.m. (in all time zones) - Men's Semifinals

Saturday, July 5, 2008
NBC
9 a.m.-2 p.m. (live) - Women's Final
ESPN2
2-3 p.m. (highlights) - Women's Final

Sunday, July 6, 2008
NBC
9 a.m.-3 p.m. (live) - Men's Final
ESPN2
3-4 p.m. (highlights) - Men's Final

thoughts on dating.
+ I'm dating a homeless woman. It was easier to talk her into staying over. -- Garry Shandling

+ Eve said to the serpent "You know I could go for a bite to eat, but I don't know you from Adam. -- Red Buttons

+ These are very confusing times. For the first time in history, a woman is expected to combine intelligence with a sharp hairdo, a raised consciousness with high heels, and an open, nonsexist relationship with a tanned guy who has a great bod. -- Lynda Barry

This column is about my personal search for the perfect investment. I don't give investment advice. For that you have to be registered with regulatory authorities, which I am not. I am a reporter and an investor. I make my daily column -- Monday through Friday -- freely available for three reasons: Writing is good for sorting things out in my brain. Second, the column is research for a book I'm writing called "In Search of the Perfect Investment." Third, I encourage my readers to send me their ideas, concerns and experiences. That way we can all learn together. My email address is . You can't click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects me from software scanning the Internet for email addresses to spam. I have no role in choosing the Google ads on this site. Thus I cannot endorse, though some look interesting. If you click on a link, Google may send me money. Please note I'm not suggesting you do. That money, if there is any, may help pay Michael's business school tuition. Read more about Google AdSense, click here and here.