Word: slumping
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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JAPAN. For decades, export has been the engine of Japanese expansion. Domestic consumption has taken a back seat to investment in industries that could sell products overseas. Suddenly, the global slump has thrown that strategy into jeopardy. Japanese exports have fallen by 10% in the past year. "There are no more Japanese miracles," said Board Member Saburo Okita of Japan, president of Tokyo's International University, who explained that lack of purchasing power everywhere was causing stagnation...
...industry has suffered more in the current slump than steelmaking. Once the backbone of the nation's industrial might, steel firms have seen sales plunge to the lowest levels in 24 years while unemployment has leaped to an alarming 37% of the work force...
...even the recession, which has cut deeply into many other parts of the restaurant business, has been able to cool the Mexican boom. The slump may, in fact, have helped fuel the explosive growth. Reason: many working mothers and two-income families, who are frequent restaurantgoers, have found that Mexican food can be salvation for the budget. The average dinner-and-drink tab is less than $10 at leading Mexican dining spots. Notes Alan Creditor, a top food analyst with the Wall Street firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert: "Mexican restaurants have two things that are very attractive to Americans-taste...
Ironically, the autumn product slump comes toward the end of a record-breaking year for Hollywood: a $2.9 billion gross take so far, up 16% from last year. With summer smashes like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial ($290 million) and An Officer and a Gentleman ($91 million) still going strong, studio bosses may have been reluctant to introduce new products. They may also be wary of making too many movies, what with the average budget today running in excess of $10 million. Says Producer Irwin Winkler: "In 1976 I made Rocky for $ 1 million. Today, even if the actors' salaries...
Indeed, with record executives singing dirges over the worst slump in many years, MTV is a possible savior. The hoped-for scenario: record companies produce the promos; MTV broadcasts them, providing free advertising for the music; viewers watch a video on MTV, like it and dash out to buy the disc. Maybe next year they'll be buying the cassettes...