Influx

With so many contradictory data points it’s very tough to get a definitive answer that explains exactly where the economy is currently “at”. I thought this chart was a pretty good summary of just how bad it got in 2008-2009 and where we are now. It’s a graph from the US...

Starbucks is a strange brand; hated by many for its ubiquity, but loved for the simple indulgent pleasure it brings. When it went down in 2008- there were cheers from various quarters, the company had gotten too big too fast and those on the sidelines wanted to see if suffer. In the tough months...

There have been lots of positive signs that the US economy has been picking up momentum in recent months, but the data isn't consistent, for every couple of pieces of good news, there seems to be a piece of OK, or not so good news.Clearly, growth is dependent on consumers reaching into their...

If you look at the data on credit, it's clear there's a massive shift underway. Consumers have become fanatical about cutting back on debt. October credit fell by $3.5 billion (-1.7% year over year). September's decline was dramatic, $8.7 billion. October marked the ninth month of declines, a trend...

The recent NYT article on sales trends at Home Depot and Wal Mart has some great clues into how consumers are changing habits in the light of economic downturn.1. Food stays on the list, clothes and furniture don't2. People are trading down to private label3. People trading down the protein ladder...

Nice piece from James Surowiecki in this weeks' New Yorker on how companies behave in recession. He cites Kellogg as an example of a company that gained ground because of actions taken during the Great Depression."In the late nineteen-twenties, two companies—Kellogg and...

While most of the leading applications on Apple's 30,000 plus store are games, the company is keen to inform us that there's lots of meaningful things you can do with your iPhone. This ad? (below) does a great job at highlighting all the recession-busting applications that you can get for your...

Bank of America is a bank that seems to have benefited from the crisis on Wall Street, picking up the brand asset of Merrill Lynch for the bargain price of $50 billion.However, despite the purchase, B of A's CEO is very skittish about the implications of the current crisis.Fortune has a good story...

Picking up a copy of USA Today this morning it was easy to be struck by the negativity of the content.- Nelson Mandela is a terrorist- Jet fuel prices set to make air travel a luxury item- Fed rate cut does nothing to change Wall St. sentimentBasically, doom and gloom all around. Then there was...

Consumer confidence sank to a quarter century low in the April 2008 survey. The decline was due to high fuel and food prices as well as shrinking income gains and falling home values. “The recent acceleration in the loss in confidence indicates a longer and potentially deeper...

We've been here before, the moment when the design bubble bursts and with it the over-inflated egos and puffery. The August edition of Icon Magazine covers the issue in some detail and includes a number of interesting manifestos from celebrated designers, including this one from Jasper...