Word: retailing
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...quarter ended March 31, retail sales of grand pianos were down 18.6%, according to the Music Trades magazine, and school-music product sales fell 6.5%. Nonstring instruments, from trombones and tubas to flutes and pianos, tend not to attract investment dollars because they diminish in value with wear and tear and age. Well-maintained string instruments are distinct - like wine - in that they appreciate with age as wood mellows and tonal qualities mature...
...Demand for student string instruments, including those valued under $10,000, has also suffered. "Like just about everyone in retail, our members have certainly been impacted by the recession," says Joe Lamond, CEO of the International Music Products Association, which represents instrument retailers. "Acoustic pianos and high-end guitars are discretionary purchases for most people, and in tough times these can be deferred until things look brighter." In such an environment, dealers are far more likely to offer discounts. (See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis...
...dozen years of excess, the overextended American consumer is tapped out. The "green shoots" crowd - those believing global recovery is nigh - drew special encouragement from a 2.2% rebound in real U.S. consumer expenditure in the first quarter of 2009. That encouragement is about to be dashed. Outright contractions in retail sales in March and April point to a renewed decline of at least 1% in real consumption in the current quarter...
...live in Austin or Los Angeles, that opinion is you're likely to go spend. If you live in New York City or Memphis, not so much. "There's no such thing as a homogeneous consumer," says Acxiom retail executive Jim Harold...
...banks are in much worse shape, with a ratio of 40.5. They must either sell $9.7 trillion in assets or raise $485 billion in capital to bring leverage down to 20. The Royal Bank of Scotland (estimated leverage: 39.3) has already started slimming down. It recently put its retail and commercial businesses in Asia on the block. New CEO Stephen Hester has announced plans to create a subsidiary that will hold about $477 billion of the bank's assets that are earmarked for disposal...