A couple of items from the world of the Beast of Bentonville. First, turns out that the Beast is performing pretty badly when it comes to the Human Rights Campaign:

The world’s largest retailer set a record this month but not one its managers are likely to be proud of.

Wal-Mart has the ignominious distinction of having the biggest drop ever from one year to the next on Human Rights Campaign’s annual “Buying for Equality” guide, which ranks companies and identifies their most popular brands. The companies are rated on a scale of zero to 100 with 100 being perfect.

Wal-Mart saw its 2006 rating of 65 plummet to 40 this year. That’s low enough to land in HRC’s red zone (companies that rank zero to 45), which means gays and their supporters are encouraged to “strongly consider other options,” according to Daryl Herrschaft, HRC’s director of the Workplace Project, which each year oversees the shopping guide, the Corporate Equality Index and the Best Places to Work guide. HRC doesn’t encourage boycotts.

    And, second, it also looks like the Beast’s failed attempt to get into banking, is going to face even more hurdle if the company ever decided to try again:

U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., Thursday circulated a draft of legislation that would narrowly limit the types of commercial companies that could own federally insured banks….

…

Commercial firms have been allowed to own banks for decades, but recent applications from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) and Home Depot Inc. (HD) caused so much controversy that the FDIC asked Congress to clarify exactly what types of companies should be allowed to engage in banking.

Wal-Mart withdrew its application earlier this year, but Home Depot’s is still pending. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said Wednesday that she wouldn’t extend the moratorium beyond January and would start reviewing the pending applications once the moratorium expires.

    The one bright side for Wal-Mart is that as the economy continues to crater, more people are doing their holiday shopping are considering Wal-Mart as an option because they are too stretched finally. So, in a reversal of the old adage "what’s good for General Motors is good for the country" we can now say something like, "when the economy is bad for most people, that’s good for Wal-Mart."