In the current economic environment, a lot of companies are cutting back costs wherever they can in hopes of boosting earnings, but entertainment giant Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) is taking a different approach and spending in hopes of boosting its sales.

Disney is hoping that by completely revamping its retail stores that it will be able to lure in more customers, keep them longer, and encourage more sales. In order to make the best of their new marketing direction, they have enlisted the aid of one of the greatest (in my opinion) retail designers out there, Steve Jobs.

Analyst upgrades:

• Citigroup raised Ann Taylor (NYSE: ANN) to Hold from Sell. The firm upgraded shares following the company's Q2 upside and believes guidance for the second half of 2008 is appropriately conservative.
  
• Jefferies upgraded China Sunergy (NASDAQ: CSUN) based on valuation,and improved liquidity and silicon supply outlook.
  
• Stephens upgraded infoUSA (NASDAQ: IUSA) shares to Overweight from Equal Weight to reflect the stock's valuation, new management, improvements in expense controls and the potential to become a takeover target.
  
• Citigroup raised BB&T (NYSE: BBT) to Buy from Hold.
• Stifel upgraded Leggett & Platt (NYSE: LEG) to Buy from Hold.

Analyst downgrades:

• Citigroup downgraded Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) to Sell from Buy as they do not expect the company's structural moves to unlock value.
  
• Wachovia dropped Knight Transportation (NYSE: KNX) to Market Perform from Outperform based on valuation.
  

BusinessWeek's Karyn McCormack laments the cost of raising children -- pegged at around $289 thousand for the first 18 years of a child's life if you're in the top 3rd of income earners. Are they worth it? Blasphemy! But in a way they're not. Kids no longer work on the farm and the value they provide is now emotional rather than concrete -- but, of course, still no less real. And that's to say nothing of college and then the increasing likelihood of Junior moving back in when he has trouble finding a job that can cover all his expenses.

So having a kid is a huge financial sacrifice -- When you add in the fact that subtracts from the amount of time you can generally spend working, it's even worse. I would go so far as to say that a large percent of 20- and 30-something's really can't afford to have kids -- and still be on track for retirement.

With the cost of child-rearing on the rise, it seems likely that a growing number of people will simply elect not to have children. This is, after all, the me generation, and lot of us are just too selfish to bother with the responsibility of having a little person to look after.

And with the population already high enough, there's really no compelling altruistic reason to have a child -- which raises questions about why the government provides tax advantages to people who have children.

In the meantime, I'm sticking with my plan not to have children, and I know that lot of my college-age friends aren't planning to either.

In the past day or so, Burger King Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: BKC) and Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) have moved in opposite directions in terms of social responsibility and the role that each sees itself playing in the war on juvenile obesity.

Burger King announced that it will "help lead the way in promoting children's nutrition by joining 11 major food and beverage companies that have pledged to focus their advertising to children under 12 on products that promote healthy dietary choices and lifestyles."

The plan is pretty ambitious. In its marketing, it will target children only with products that have no more than 560 calories per meal, less than 30% of calories from fat, less than 10% of calories from saturated fat, no added trans fats, and no more than 10% of calories from added sugars. In addition, the burger giant will stop using third-party licensed characters to market unhealthy foods to children, stop advertising in elementary schools, and promote healthier lifestyles with its advertising. And to make eating healthy food easier, it will develop new items that are low in fat and sugar.

And now on to Starbucks: The company has a long-held policy of not targeting children with its ads. But now, a spokesman for the company says that it is considering adding new drinks and/or drink sizes to appeal to younger customers.

The NY Post is reporting that marketing companies are working to begin pushing debit cards to kids as young as 7! Although I certainly wouldn't get a 7 year old a debit card, the marketers have a pretty interesting pitch. For example, one argument is that a debit card will help a child learn how to budget his money. This is certainly a valid idea, but I think that parents should be encouraging saving! In my experience, anything I bought from ages 7-10 was something I regretted purchasing within a month of having it. I saved money I made from lemonade stands and other silly businesses -- this allowed me to begin learning about the benefits of investing your money, how to find competitive interest rates, etc.

One "expert" compared debit cards for kids to the learners permit -- kids use this as an entry to finance. But let's remember America has a 0% savings rate, so that's like learning to drive from Paris Hilton.

Kids need to learn to save, not spend.

Shares of Build-A-Beat Workshop (NYSE: BBW) have been fairly lackluster performers since the company's IPO in 2004, but a new concept store called Ridemakerz could change all that, as Build-A-Bear owns 25% of the new venture.

Build-A-Bear has about 300 locations globally, offering children and their parents an opportunity to customize their own teddy bears. Ridemakerz, whose first location just opened last week, will offer fathers and sons a chance to build their own toy cars. According to the New York Times, "Customers select a chassis type (street or monster); body styles (stock or custom, a Ridemakerz brand hot rod, a Ford Mustang GT, or Dodge Ram pickup, to name a few options); paint schemes; sound effects (for example, sirens or race sounds) and style of locomotion (free wheel or radio control) ... After the 10- to 12-inch cars are assembled, there are ample customizing and accessorizing options: tire treads, grille guards, side pipes, snowboard racks and decals. Mr. Andreini estimates that a fully tricked-out vehicle will run about $75, including $25 for radio control. For the budget-minded, there's a stock tuner car for $12."

If this does catch on, and it seems likely that it will, the growth could be explosive. Build-A-Bear grew from one store to more than 300 in ten years and, with the support of Build-A-Bear already there, Ridemakerz could much more quickly.

With the huge popularity of NASCAR and cars in general, Ridemakerz could be the catalyst for shares of BBW to rapidly gain in value. The shares are trading right around their price from a year ago, indicating that much of the upside of Ridemakerz is not yet priced in.

To learn more about Ridemakerz, see the company's website.

Thursday's Wall Street Journal took an interesting look at some of the problems facing teens looking for summer work. As someone who worked numerous jobs during my high school summers (not all that long ago), I thought I'd offer some tips. I learned far more working during high school than I did in the classroom (although I could also say that about watching cartoons and blowing my nose), and this was partly a result of finding jobs that were unique and matched my interests. So here are my tips:

Don't focus on the money...unless you have to. In some families, cash is so tight that the teenage worker needs to earn as much as he or she can, and I understand that. But if you're not in that situation, the best advice I can give you is to not worry about how much the job pays. There's a good chance that you will be forking over tens of thousands of dollars for your child's education and a dollar or two an hour will hardly make a dent (even if your child doesn't blow it on clothing, video games, and dates), and a good high school job can be a great education -- and it pays! So don't let money stop your child from taking a job he'd love over one he isn't so excited about.

Much has been made of Anheuser Busch's (NYSE: BUD) new "premium malt beverage" product called Spykes. Critics allege that the drink's small (easy to hide) size, colorful packaging, and caffeine are designed to attract underage drinkers. Of course the company denies the charge, but numerous groups are still calling for legal action. While I really am not familiar enough with the product or alcohol marketing to comment on this specific case, my issue is this: It is unethical for companies to consciously market their products to people who shouldn't buy them. Spykes draws inevitable comparisons to the Joe Camel ads of the 1990's, but here are some of the less obvious parallels:

• Predatory lenders luring in college students with credit card offers they don't understand, and mortgage brokers sticking lower-income people with subprime mortgages when they would have been better-served with one of the federally-subsidized programs. PeachDirect offers luxury items to college students on installment with exorbitant interest rates.
• Hungry-Man's thousand-calorie breakfast, which contains 231% of the recommended daily value for cholesterol in one serving. So the recommendation is that you consumer 2.3x as much cholesterol at breakfast as you should during that entire day. No one should eat this product, and companies shouldn't market products that are by definition bad for you.
• Several years ago, The Illinois lottery put up a billboard in a poor Chicago neighborhood with the slogan, "This could be your way out." Of course, people should never gamble with money they can't afford to lose. If you're poor, you by definition can't afford to lose money. It's wrong for anyone, most of all the government, to prey on society's least fortunate.

These are just a few of the examples that come to mind when I think of companies marketing to people who shouldn't buy their products. Can you think of others?

My children, it must be admitted, love television. As I'm a financial type who works from home, they're often subjected to my TV choices; so they know Maria Bartiromo and Rachael Ray well, much like faraway telegenic aunts.

If a recent trademark filing is any indication, they soon may get to know Maria even better, not as a CNBC reporter (nor as the center of a scandal involving special treatment by Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) bigwig Todd Thomson) but as the cartoon "Money Honey."

No, really! TVNewser was tipped off on the filing, in the name of Bartiromo, Maria for Money Honey to be used for "Entertainment services, namely, an ongoing children's television series; motion picture films; theatrical programs; fan club services; online entertainment services, namely information, interactive games ..." and, of course, more. It's just been filed, on January 16th. I've filed many a trademark application, and in my opinion, this looks as if it was done up in 30 minutes. I'm sure the attorneys at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz billed a whole hour for it though... No word on whether the resulting show might be live-action or animated.

While I love the concept (it's far prettier than Warren Buffett's animated series, though a little less fun), the timing leaves something to wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder... did Maria file in anticipation of a brou-ha-ha resulting in calls for CNBC to fire her? Had she just discovered that her biggest fan's Sundance deal was going to fall through, and this was the next-best thing? Is it just a complete coincidence?

Like they say on Psych, there's no such thing as coincidence.

My son Everett, who's almost four, was so excited when a "Starbooks" (as he calls it) was built on the corner a few blocks from our front door. He knows Starbucks as a reliable outlet for chocolate cow (the little Horizon milks with the picture of the cow) and glazed doughnuts. Several local Starbucks have little reading areas for families with children. Every time we drop in to our corner coffee shop, we run into other children packed in strollers and baby carriers. In our neighborhood, at least, Starbucks is all about young children.

The company officially has a policy that it won't market to kids. Yet anyone who's been in a Starbucks outlet recently has noted a not-subtle shift. First there was the Laurie Berkner DVD (the first DVD marketed in Starbucks) -- she's a wildly popular children's singer. Then Dan Zanes CDs joined Berkner on the shelf. A few months ago I was unsurprised to see, next to heaps of stuffed bears, barrels of brightly-colored children's books (Dot and Dash, a ladybug and a turtle, go on adventures through "Mango Mooka Forest" and "Strawberry Summit," where muffins grow in the trees and chocolate rice krispie treats peak from behind oversized fruit).

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Starbucks' "written policy says its 'overall marketing, advertising and event sponsorship efforts are not directed at children or youth,' although some 'community activities' end up reaching kids. The company reviews marketing materials to avoid distributing ones that could be 'inadvertently appealing to youth.' " Yet June was welcomed in with the company's summer drink lineup; many of them available in non-caffeinated and decidedly kid-focused versions. As the Journal pointed out, the company staged marketing events at zoos and other kid-friendly locales.