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| Economic indicators suggest... we're buggered |
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As the world economy spirals into a black hole, there are all sorts of economic indicators which apparently herald financial boom or bust. Well, let’s face it, bust. When did you ever see a headline foretelling an imminent boom?
Pictured here is an indicator more accurate than any of yer FT statistics. It’s one small cross-section of my (sad this, I know) motoring magazine archive: the main weekly motoring magazines dating back to about 1940, stacked year by year. You will notice that the piles vary hugely in height. Since the pagination of motoring mags depends solely on advertising revenue, it’s no surprise that there are very small piles corresponding to WWII, and the 1970s oil crisis; huge tomes as we trip merrily through the 1980s before descending to mere pamphlets by the end of the decade…
And what about 2008? Well, a leading weekly motoring mag recently went from ‘perfect bound’ to ‘saddle-stitched’. In non-publishing terms: oh dear.
