| MatC
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| 293211. Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:50 am |
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The annual turnover of the British publishing industry is now £2.8 billion.
The UK bread market is £2.9 billion.
The British spend slightly more on books than on Fish or cheese.
900,000 books a day are sold in Britain.
S: London Review of Books, 7 Feb 08.
Links: Fish. |
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| Flash
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| 293339. Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:22 pm |
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| Quote: | | 900,000 books a day are sold in Britain. |
850,000 of them by Jeremy Clarkson. |
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| eggshaped
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| 310498. Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:10 am |
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Question: Why does The City like short skirts?
Answer: because when the hemline goes up, the market goes up
There are a number of odd indexes that are supposed to predict how the market will go, but perhaps the strangest is the hemline index. Coined in 1926 by US economist George Taylor, the idea has been spookily accurate:
(Apologies for the long c&p)
| Quote: | In the Twenties, hemlines rose along with stock prices. Sonnet Stanfil, fashion curator of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, says: “The decade spelled economic freedom. Women threw off the shackles of the heavily-corseted Edwardian period and hemlines became dramatically shorter for the first time.”
In 1929 the Wall Street Crash brought boom time to an abrupt close and hems dropped almost overnight. During the Depression, mass unemployment meant it was not the time to experiment with cutting edge designs so skirts remained reassuringly long and subtly feminine.
In 1947, Christian Dior’s New Look, with its lavish use of material in the full skirts, mirrored the new sense of optimism. Through-out the Fifties, the time of Marilyn Monroe, skirts slowly began to rise, reflecting the steady upward path of share prices.
In the mid-Sixties, Mary Quant’s brash mini, made famous by Twiggy, marked a booming economy and a new-found freedom, whereas the onset of feminism and a slumping market in the Seventies meant that skirt hems dropped to the floor once more.
By the mid-Eighties, and sported by Cindy Crawford, they were shorter than ever when shares reached new heights, until the recession of the early Nineties when rising interest rates and plummeting house prices gave birth to grunge and Kate Moss started modelling.
As the 2000s dawned and computer systems coped with the new millennium, markets stayed up and so hemlines followed. But the first decade of the 21st century has generally been defined by uncertainty and fluctuation, from the return of the mini, courtesy of Christopher Kane, to the more austere midi showing on catwalks now. |
Other indexes:
The Big Mac Index
Used by The Economist. Because the product is made to the same spec around the world, one can compare prices of Big Macs, and it is supposed to give an idea of how the two economies compare. If a big mac is $3.41 in the US and £1.99 in the UK, then the exchange rate should be 3.41 / 1.99 or $1.71 to the £1. If you get more dollars than that, then the pound must be strong.
The Superbowl Index
For 28 years, when NFL teams defeated AFL teams in the Superbowl final, the market did well, however the system failed to predict the dotcom crash.
s: The Observer Book of Money
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/34787/The-Hemline-Economy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/programmes/breakfast/2552705.stm |
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| dr.bob
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| 310635. Fri Apr 04, 2008 10:10 am |
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| eggshaped wrote: | Question: Why does The City like short skirts?
Answer: because when the hemline goes up, the market goes up |
I presume, with the current global credit crunch, the catwalks of the world will soon be packed full of burqas. |
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| Flash
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| 318887. Thu Apr 17, 2008 5:06 pm |
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One for the Europhobes:
Why is the QUID the currency of the future?
or, better:
Which is the currency of the future: the Quid or the Euro?
The Q.U.I.D. is the "Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination", a monetary unit designed for use in space by National Space Centre and the University of Leicester for foreign exchange company Travelex (presumably as a publicity stunt).
It is made out of a polymer plastic with moulded edges so as not to cause damage if it accidently floats free in zero gravity.
"None of the existing payment systems we use on earth - like cash, credit or debit cards - could be used in space," said Professor George Fraser from the University of Leicester. "Anything with sharp edges, like coins, would be a risk to astronauts while the chips and magnetic strips used in our cards on Earth would be damaged beyond repair by cosmic radiation," he added. "With an inflatable space hotel, from Bigelow Aerospace, under development in the US, and Virgin Galactic developing SpaceShipTwo, there will be better access to space than there has been. In the fullness of time we will have to adopt a universal currency if we are going to carry out serious commerce in space."
Travelex said: "It's only a matter of time before people will be walking up to our shops and asking for Quids for their two weeks in a space hotel."
It is currently quoting the currency at £6.25 to the Quid.
Ian Dunn at
post 217774.
Fred - one for the Future script? I'll post a note in the future thread in case you're not paying attention to financial matters. |
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| Frederick The Monk
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| 319052. Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:16 am |
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| I'm always paying attention to financial matters. That's why I'm the smooth multi-millionaire you see before you. As Egg and Moll ambushed me, beat me up and stole my snow question I do happen to be one short for the Future script so this might go a long way to make up for the loss. |
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| eggshaped
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| 319063. Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:26 am |
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| Mwah ha ha! You should be thankful that we let you keep your dinner money. |
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| dr.bob
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| 319157. Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:03 am |
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| Quote: | | "None of the existing payment systems we use on earth - like cash, credit or debit cards - could be used in space," said Professor George Fraser from the University of Leicester. "Anything with sharp edges, like coins, would be a risk to astronauts while the chips and magnetic strips used in our cards on Earth would be damaged beyond repair by cosmic radiation," he added. |
Notice how he carefully avoids mentions notes at all. Presumably, given their lack of sharp edges or magnetic strips, they'd be just fine. Now, if we can just invent a currency that's worth so little you only ever use notes instead of coins.....
Perhaps it's time to bring back the Lira :) |
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| suze
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| 319179. Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:33 am |
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The Zimbabwe dollar is still around! The official exchange rate is ZWD 59,000 to the pound, but in practice it's more like 14,000,000 to the pound.
There are no coins in normal use - since a revaluation of the ZWD in 2006 none have been produced - but old coins are used as tokens for gaming machines.
There are actually no conventional banknotes in use either - all the cash now in use in Zimbabwe is in the form of pre-printed bearer bonds. They function much like banknotes, except that they have an expiry date. There is a one cent bearer bond in circulation, while the highest value one is for $50 million.
One consequence of all of this is that the lower value bonds are worth more as scrap paper than as money. |
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| MatC
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| 323681. Thu Apr 24, 2008 6:18 am |
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| Quote: | | Answer: because when the hemline goes up, the market goes up |
Hemlines in Britain rose during WW2, to save material; the hemline was officially set by Government.
S: ‘London 1945’ by Maureen Waller (John Murray, 2005). |
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