“In fact it is easier to make the case that the music industry, far from imploding, is one of the great success stories of the recession.” If music executives sold bottled water, they’d be calling for a ban on tapwater downloads. But their industry is proving resilient |
Who says you can’t sell something when there’s a free version? Photograph: Bruno Vincent/Getty Images |
Illegal downloads continue to be a cause of Armageddon within the music industry and a source of endless fascination outside. Business leaders still regularly moan that illegal downloads are destroying their livelihood, especially if representatives of government are within hearing range. At the first Music 4.5 conference in London last week, speakers took it as read that “kids are not buying music anymore” and that they must look elsewhere for revenues. Evidence of the demise of purchased music is everywhere to be seen, except for one place: the statistics. |
| In fact it is easier to make the case that the music industry, far from imploding, is one of the great success stories of the recession. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk |
| What I question is not consumption in the abstract but consumerism and overconsumption. While consumption means acquiring and using goods and services to meet one’s needs, consumerism is the particular relationship to consumption in which we seek to meet our emotional and social needs through shopping, and we define and demonstrate our self-worth through the Stuff we own. And overconsumption is when we take far more resources than we need and than the planet can sustain, as is the case in most of the United States as well as a growing number of other countries. Consumerism is about excess, about losing sight of what’s important in the quest for Stuff. |
| Lots of our favorite characters and cultural icons surround themselves with signature cool Stuff. |
| What would the Oscars be without the gowns? |
| We’re attached to these characters’ possessions and obsessions as much as to their personalities; it’s all part of our national mythology. It only makes sense that we’d get attached to our own Stuff.Read more at www.alternet.org |
Discretionary spending is further threatened.
The recession may be officially over, but more than a quarter of home owners
risk losing their homes after admitting they are still living on a
“financial precipice”.
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Latest research suggested 26 per cent of borrowers aged between 35 and 44
would be unable to meet their mortgage repayments if they saw a £300 drop in
their monthly income.
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And one in eight adults in this age range has deliberately over-inflated their
income to secure a larger loan, according to the YouGov research,
commissioned credit reference agency Callcredit.
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Graham Lund, managing director of Callcredit, said: “These statistics are
extremely alarming. A significant proportion of these people, many with
families to support, are living on a financial precipice where just one
negative event, such as a reduction in paid overtime or an unexpected
expense, could have disastrous financial consequences.”
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Columnist Veronique de Rugy warns the US against a new Value-Added Tax and argues for an immediate reduction in spending and entitlement reform. The proponents vary: one side thinks it could alleviate the deficit, the other thinks it could help pay for entitlements, like healthcare. Thoughts? Widely used in Europe, the Value-Added Tax (VAT) has
always seemed a non-starter in the United States. That may be
changing given apparently insurmountable structural deficits and
fear that the financial collapse of Greece could happen here if
revenue isn’t increased. These days, the VAT is being taken
seriously even by pro-market conservatives and libertarians. A
VAT is a
consumption tax which is levied at each stage of production based
on the value added to the product at that stage. |
| The first thing to note is that Greece collapsed in spite of
having a 19
percent VAT since 2005. The second thing is that there’s little
to no chance that the government could credibly commit to assign
even a share of any new VAT revenue to deficit reduction. |
| But VAT
proponents who claim that we can’t cut spending enough or reform
entitlements underestimate the fact that the massive redistribution
of income from the young to the old will soon become politically
unsustainable.Read more at reason.com |
Growing subsidence risks, apart from being expensive for owners, are liable to drive down prices on properties built on clay or sand. | Extreme weather possibly linked to climate change, as well as construction on less stable ground, have provoked unprecedented foundation failures in houses nationwide. Foundation repair companies report a doubling and tripling of their business in the last two decades with no let-up even during the recession |
| Clay soils, like those beneath the houses of Mr. Derse and Ms. Wilson, shrink during droughts and swell during floods, causing structures to bob. And because sandier soil loses its adhesive properties in dry conditions, it pulls away from foundations. Heavy rains cause it to shift or just collapse beneath structures. |
Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association indicates that since the 1990s there has been an accelerating trend nationwide toward more extended dry periods followed by downpours. Whether due to random climate patterns or global warming, the swings between hot and dry weather and severe rain or snow have profoundly affected soil underneath buildings. Read more at www.nytimes.com |
The need for alternative media of exchange to fiat money increases every day. Gold will not do. The chart below shows the US Federal Debt per person. In the last ten years it has gone from $ 20,000 to $ 40,000. If we were to also include the present value of the government’s future unfunded liabilities like Social Security and Medicare, the debt per person would soar to more than $250,000. |
| The problem is not just the current debt levels of these nations, because the deficits in all the countries are rising. Tax revenues are collapsing at the same time, while the governments’ expenses for social charges are soaring. |
Governments like the US and the UK are committed to printing increasing amounts of worthless paper money in order to finance their growing deficits. The consequence of this rescue mission will be a hyperinflationary depression in many countries, due to many currencies becoming worthless. Read more at dailyreckoning.com |
• VAT dodge thought to be costing UK £110m a year
• Low website prices forcing hundreds of shops to shut |
Boxed sets of series one to three of Channel 4’s teen drama Skins can be bought online for £17.99, just under the threshold of £18 at which VAT applies Photograph: Channel 4 |
The controversial online sale of VAT-free CDs exploded at the end of last year, driving one in three purchases by British music-lovers on to the web. The surge in sales casts doubt over Treasury claims to be tackling the tax dodge, already thought to be costing the exchequer £110m a year and rising. |
Websites operated by HMV, Tesco, Amazon, Play.com, Asda, WH Smith and Woolworths structure almost all their online CD and DVD transactions as personal imports from the Channel Islands. As a result they are able to offer unbeatable VAT-free prices, threatening the futures of music stores and sapping tax revenues. |
Data from market research firm Kantar shows that 16.5m CDs were bought by British customers over the internet in the last three months of 2009 at an average price of £7.80. Over the same busy pre-Christmas period, 26.6m DVDs were bought online at an average price of £9.36. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk |
Sharp rise in government spending and drop in tax receipts means Britain borrowed another £4.3bn last month rather than repaying £2.8bn as economists expected |
Alistair Darling’s £178bn forecast for deficit for the year as a whole is under pressure. Photograph: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images |
The British government has posted its worst borrowing figures on record for a January in another blow to Britain’s attempts to reassure other countries it is not the next Greece or Spain. |
A sharp rise in government spending and a drop in tax receipts from businesses hit by the deepest recession in decades meant that Britain was unable to post the usual surplus enjoyed in a January, a month when income tax and corporation tax revenues typically pick up. In fact, by the government’s preferred measure of the public coffers, there was a deficit last month – the first January when the government was forced to borrow since records began in 1993. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk |
Fears of a double-dip recession intensified this morning as the sharpest
monthly fall in retail sales in one and a half years was revealed.
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The downbeat spending figures come the morning after a shock rise in public
sector borrowing emerged, casting doubt over the recovery. The £4.3 billion
deficit for last month is the first time on record that the Treasury has not
recorded a January surplus.
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Treasury coffers were hit by a plunge in tax receipts prompting concern that
Britain’s finances could be worse than those of Greece.
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| Between December and January, total sales volumes decreased by
1.8 per cent, the largest decrease since June 2008, |
The retailing data is also likely to reinforce expectation that interest rates
will remain on hold for the most of this year, despite recent rises in
inflation.
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| Add into the mix the ongoing urge to
save or to pay down debt, plus the impending rise in income taxes, and
consumer spending seems likely to continue to spiral downwards in the months
aheadRead more at business.timesonline.co.uk |
| Millions of borrowers are facing “crippling” debts after banks put up interest
rates on credit cards to a 12 year high |
The average rate of interest has now climbed to 18.8 per cent, the highest
since 1998, with some card holders being forced to pay as much as 46 per
cent in interest.
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The figures emerged as a separate report by price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com
showed how two out of five borrowers are relying on their credit cards to
buy even the most basic of everyday items, such as food and petrol.
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| Having three or more credit cards is now standard practice for one in five
Britons, with 17 per cent of credit card holders using their card at least
once a day |
| Britain’s credit card operators and banks |
| increased the
profit margins on mortgages and lowered savings rates.
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Credit card providers are increasing rates amid concerns about borrowers
failing to repay their debts.
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The demise of the music industry is visible everywhere but in the facts
