Wrong Polish on the Economy

Many economists like to keep a watchful eye on popular fashion-related developments, including fabric and color choices, hemline lengths, and appearance-enhancing acccessories, to try and get a read on where things stand on Main Street and Wall Street.

According to a report in the Los Angeles Loyolan, "Nail Polish: This Recession's Lipstick," one modern day indicator continues to flash major warning signs about the state of the economy (despite reassurances from the usual clowns crowd that we're on the road to recovery):

Leonard Lauder, the chairman emeritus of cosmetics company Estée Lauder explained: “We have long observed the concept of small luxuries, things that can get you through hard times and good ones. And they become more important during harder times. The biggest surge in movie attendance came during the 1930s during the Depression,” he told Roya Wolverson in a Sept. 14, 2011 TIME Magazine story titled “What lipstick tells us about the economy.”

Historically, lipstick sales increased as our country’s economic health decreased, and Lauder coined this phenomenon (as he observed it in the makeup industry) the “Lipstick Index.”

The phrase was definitely better suited for the ’90s, when lip liner and a deep burgundy hue was the difference between Marge Simpson and Carrie Bradshaw, and according to Adam Davidson from NPR’s (National Public Radio) “Planet Money,” “For reasons nobody quite understands, the lipstick indicator doesn’t hold up anymore, though nail polish sales now seem to reflect the economy very clearly (albeit inversely). A rise in nail polish sales indicates that we’re searching for bargain luxuries as the economy craters - and sales of nail polish are way up right now.”

A quick trip to the nearest nail salon or Target displays the growing popularity of wild nail polish abundantly clear. The decision is no longer between shiny red polish or a French manicure; there’s magnetic lacquer, gel shellac, crackle and instant dry. Hands are a rainbow of colors with color block splashes. Essie and OPI bottles have names like “Midnight in Moscow” (a deepy reddish black sparkly hue) and “My Boyfriend Scales Walls” (a white color that is part of OPI’s Spider-Man themed collection). Even men are getting in on the action: Amazon is currently selling a brown hued nail polish made by ManGlaze called “Santorum.” It promises to be “Formulated for ugliness.”

Though our wild nails might not save the economy, they can definitely tell us a lot about it.

Comments

[Diane M]

Something I've noticed is that shows on TV have changed. We no longer see lots of home improvement shows (the real estate market being down, along with disposable income) and shows about rich gangsta rappers living the high life. Subject matter seems a lot more dampened down now. And generally, with fashion, it seems that more conservative styles are in. The past year brought stripes and Sperry topsiders back into fashion, both of which seem conservative compared to Bruno Magli shoes and handbags with lots of sparkle and crap hanging off them. The mood seems to be cautious and not as confident and "showy" as in years past when people were seemingly flush with cash. These are all just subjective observations I've made.

[Slime, the recession's new meat]

Many are trying to say pink slime is meat, too...

'Pink Slime' Defense Rises
Agriculture Secretary, Farm-State Governors Want Supermarkets to Use Filler

It turns out not everyone hates pink slime.

After being pummeled in the media for weeks, the beef additive made from leftover trimmings is getting support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the governors of five states, who argue it has been unfairly labeled and is actually a safe, low-cost way to make ground beef leaner.

"This is an unwarranted, unmerited food scare," said Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback in an interview Thursday. "If there was some basis in fact to this, other than somebody's clever naming of it, then you'd say 'no you shouldn't stick your neck out on it.' "

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said he, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and representatives of several other states planned to taste the product themselves after touring a plant where it is made on Thursday.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304177104577310073554930742.html

[Diane M]

Another good reason to forgo meat.

[Tom]

Protest by the Paste-eaters! Woo-hoo!!

[If it quacks like a duck]

MSM tries to polish over a theft...listen.

MF Global Customer & Fund Manager on JP Morgan and the Goldman Connection

http://sgtreport.com/2012/03/mf-global-customer-fund-manager-on-jp-morgan-and-the-goldman-connection/

[Lipstick and mass scare-ra]

Happy Friday! The Public Gets Tee'd Up For Slaughter - Again...

"It's the only place I can find any yield whatsoever with a reasonable risk," said Lee Hevner, an individual investor who said he started buying junk bonds this year for the first time.

Those will be famous last words. That poor sot allowed his ignorant, greedy investment advisor talk him into putting 15% of $500k stash in junk bonds. Hope he can afford to lose most of it.

Once again, courtesy of the Fed's zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) and the Government's catastrophic fiscal policies, the yield-starved individual investor has been flooding the high yield market with money in a desperate search for investment yields that have any shot at keeping up with the true cost of living.

Investors of all stripes have been diving into junk. Many of them are searching for investments that yield more than the meager rates offered by Treasuries and investment-grade corporate bonds. They are flooding into high-yield mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, market data show.

That quote is from this article from today's Wall St. Journal titled, "Junk Bonds Feed A Hungry Market." Here's the LINK. This desperate quest for more investment income has triggered a big wave of money flows in high yield bond funds and ETF's, which in turn has led to a huge issuance of new high yield bond deals.

http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2012/03/happy-friday-public-gets-teed-up-for.html

[Rocky]

Lipstick: As the old saying goes, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. However, a 3 point commission credit built into the offering price of the bond is enough to motivate the salesman, and on Wall St. sales are what count. Fortunately for Wall St., there are lot of unsophisticated investors like Lee Hevner out there, just waiting to go to the slaughter.