EIC podcast: Best Buy's fall; Obama's CTO, Microhoo; Search wars

On the economy, Dan and I talk about the downward spiral that's going on with consumer spending. Best Buy is the latest company to say October was a bad month. When will it end? And what does this gloom and doom mean for a tradeshow like CES?

We also spent some time talking about President-elect Obama's plan to create a CTO cabinet position. The challenges for this new CTO--who is yet to be named--are immense.

And finally we talk about Yahoo and whether it should do a search deal with Microsoft. Both of us noted that such a deal makes sense despite the miscues on both sides. On a related front, Microsoft is looking to be the default search provider for Verizon Wireless at the expense of Google. I noted that there's also an operating system play with this potential deal. Google wants Android in Verizon Wireless devices and Microsoft wants Windows Mobile in more places.