Cinemanomics - 2 x 12 = 18

I probably go to the movies twice a year.  The $18 ticket before we even get to the ridiculous food prices, which are second apparently, only to the airport, is too steep for me.  The "half-price" Tuesday ticket at $12 is an insult to my intelligence - I know what half of 18 is. 

No wonder people just figure that they will buy the DVD in a couple of months.  With big screens and surround-sound systems a lot more common than they used to be, people will just skip the cinema altogether. 

I know I'm not alone precisely because I did actually feel very alone while catching a movie earlier in the year.  There were perhaps 4 people in the session.  Granted, the movie was in its final week and it wasn't an evening session but a room that empty would suggest a broken business model.  

This model would appear to be based solely on the premise that there are enough fools prepared to pay sufficiently over-the-odds to make up for all of the empty sessions.  The problem with this model is that it only has one solution to any problem, namely to keep increasing the prices to an ever-decreasing audience.  Surely, the plan should be about attracting more customers. 

Here's something for cinema chains to consider: if the ticket was actually $9, I'd go to more than double the number of movies I currently do.  In fact, throw in a choc-top for $1, giving me a great 10 buck movie deal, I'd go every month.  By halving cost, they would make more than five times as much money out of me (admittedly not counting my cheap choc-top but I'm sure they'd still be making money on that anyway). 

So why won't that happen?

In The Dark

I heard a woman asking for downlights the other day.  So many questions raced through my head. 

If downlights light up the room, what's so special about them?  And what other kinds of lights are there? Uplights? Highlights?  And what about lamps?

Doesn't Rate At All

Here's some more dismal science.

So a ratings agency downgrades the USA and carnage ensues on the stock market - globally.  One of the main reasons the US and global financial markets are in such a mess is that a few years ago many worthless American mortgages were bundled-up and on-sold as "five star" investments to American and international investors.  The resulting carnage from that debacle was the GFC: banks folded, the retail and housing sectors collapsed and massive unemployment followed.  It's with facing all these difficulties that some "experts" have now decided that the USA isn't what it used to be.  

Now to be sure, the whole thing is more complicated than this but there are some very obvious culprits.  For example, who was it who gave the thumbs-up to these useless investments?  Oh that's right, it was a group of ratings agencies, including the one that's just downgraded the US economy and started the next crash.

Anyone else seeing a dog chasing its tail?

Oracle of The Clash

The Casbah's rocking, London's burning and what with the Olympics being in London next year, I'm wondering "Should I stay or should I go?"

Yes We Have No Bananas

If there's one thing I definitely do not understand, it's economics.  Shortly the RBA will be meeting to decide whether or not to put up interest rates.  One of the main causes for concern apparently is that the price of fruit, bananas being the most quoted example, has gone up dramatically following last year's Queensland floods.

Now I get that part.  I can understand that if 70% of a state was underwater, less fruit is grown and because demand can therefore not be met, prices go up. 

What I don't understand is how making me pay an extra $20 a week on my mortgage is going to solve that problem.  My paying an extra $20 doesn't suddenly make all the water go away and the trees come back.  There's still a shortage of fruit.   

Now perhaps, for some people, that extra mortgage payment suddenly means that they'll stop buying fruit and therefore the demand and price will drop but in my opinion there is no rationality to that argument.  Those people who want to buy fruit and can still afford it are still going to do so.  The rest of us just think about the good times when we could afford fruit.  We've already stopped adding to the demand side of the equation. 

No wonder they call it "The Dismal Science".

But the real kicker?  Other than the extra mortgage repayments?  I don't even like bananas!