Latest news with #economicdownturn
Irish Times
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Destiny's Child reunited? Michael Flatley's Áras run? Recession indicators, big time
Last week, Destiny's Child reformed for the first time in several years. All three members appeared on stage during a Beyoncé concert in Las Vegas . When I saw the news my brain instantly went to: 'Destiny's Child are reuniting = recession indicator.' Just the other day I was mulling about Labubu dolls – those crazed little fanged monsters hanging off handbags and backpacks – and thinking Labubus and their outrageous price tags must surely be a recession indicator. Young people enjoying themselves outside on the streets of Dublin? Recession indicator. Michael Flatley running for president? Big recession indicator. Huge. It's been a social media trend for months now to label almost anything a 'recession indicator' and I get it, I really do. The combination of one horrific world event after another coupled with our ability to pour news of said events directly into our eyeballs from sun up to sundown means we are constantly waiting for the next global disaster to land. The obsession with recession makes sense. Meath musician CMAT, a true tastemaker, has her finger on the pulse as usual with her latest single Euro-Country, in which she savages 'All the big boys / All the Berties/ All the envelopes' of Ireland's catastrophic banking crash. Depending on who you listen to, we're either hurtling towards a recession, have had three recessions since Covid, or are nowhere close to an economic downturn. Still, though, some of the cultural portents are there. Remember the great 'desk to dancefloor' movement that started circa 2008-9 when women went out clubbing in business-casual attire paired with a dangly earring? I'm telling you, it's back. Have you been in a Zara recently? Clean eating has found its new incarnation, this time in the form of the demonisation of 'ultra processed foods', and alongside it is a renewed obsession with 'heroin chic' slimness. Recession. Indicators. Every single one. I'm somebody who made it through 2008 and the subsequent years relatively unscathed. My family and our means were extremely modest through the 1990s and early 2000s. Both of my parents had grown up with very little so were highly risk averse when it came to money. We didn't reap any Celtic Tiger benefits so there wasn't really much to lose. We didn't have a holiday home in Bulgaria or go Christmas shopping in New York and Santa never arrived in a helicopter at my school. The closest we got to helicopters was via my dad's job as an Air Corps sergeant in Baldonnel. READ MORE When the crash came, we weren't dependent on any of the industries that came down with it. I graduated from my second go at college in 2006 and went into a radio journalism job on €26,000 a year. I felt rich beyond my wildest dreams, even though I was €12,000 below the average annual wage. I rented a flat with my friends and we bought the cheapest and most toxic spirits from the supermarket and mixed them with beverages that were shamelessly imitating Red Bull. When the recession hit the most tangible impact I remember was the sharp downturn in media-adjacent launches and parties offering free booze. We threw a 'Re-Session' party in the flat and served the toxic vodka, as per usual. In 2008 my mother was a recently retired primary schoolteacher and in May of that year my father died of cancer, which was enough to distract from the global economic disaster. Truly, though, not much changed for me. I feel lucky now that my parents' jobs as public servants and our place on the low end of the middle classes insulated me from the true horror that others suffered. The shock waves from 2008 and the years that followed still reverberate and I feel those keenly, particularly when it comes to housing. All signs point to another crash like the one in 2008 being unlikely, but that doesn't negate the fact that many people are struggling. Conflating the cost-of-living crisis with possible recession via the shorthand language of memes and humour online isn't all that surprising. People are poised for disaster. If Will Smith making new music or Ryanair getting militant about the size of your tiny bag feels like recession indicator, then maybe it is. Just please, for the love of God, don't let skinny jeans come back. We've suffered enough.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Scottish TV in crisis as demand collapses amid economic gloom
Scottish TV has been plunged into crisis as economic gloom hits advertising revenues and demand for new shows. Scottish Television (STV), which holds the Channel 3 licence in Scotland and is the country's largest commercial broadcaster, has warned that its revenues and profits would be 'materially' below expectations this year. Shares in the broadcaster plunged by as much as a third to their lowest level in more than 12 years in response to the update, pushing its market value below £90m. ITV, which licences many of its programmes to the Scottish channel, was also down 2pc. STV suffered a 10pc drop in advertising revenue in the first six months of 2025, which it said was in line with expectations following strong trading in the same period last year during the Euros football tournament. But bosses warned the market had since deteriorated further, with ad revenues plunging by a fifth in July. In addition to the advertising downturn, STV warned of a significant slowdown in its production division, which is the largest in Scotland and is behind shows such as the BBC's Blue Lights and upcoming Sky drama Amadeus. Studio businesses are considered a key area of growth for broadcasters as they grapple with a decline in traditional TV viewing. But rising costs and tough competition from streaming rivals result in many channels having to cut back on programming spend, leading to fewer commissions. ITV last week said it was slashing its programming spending as part of a wider cost-cutting strategy, while Channel 4 is also investing significantly less in making TV shows. Focus on Britain STV said that while it is working on projects for US streaming giants including Netflix and Apple, it remains primarily UK-focused, meaning it has been 'disproportionately' hit by a drying up of demand in the domestic market. STV forecasts production revenues of between £75m and £85m for the full year, well behind its targets of £200m by the end of the decade. Overall, STV said it was lowering its full-year revenue forecasts to between £165m and £180m with a profit margin of around 7pc. Richard Bernstein, the head of fund manager Crystal Amber, which was previously the largest shareholder in STV, described the profit warning as 'vicious'. He said: 'We've been tracking the company and saw today's warning as inevitable: it was over a year since its last new studio commission, we think the worst is yet to come.' In May, STV announced that it would combine its traditional TV and streaming businesses into a single division, aiming to streamline the company for the digital age. It also announced plans to launch a new Scotland-focused commercial radio station while doubling revenues in its studios unit. Bosses said they were ramping up cost-cutting plans with a further £750,000 in savings identified, bringing the company's total target for the year to £2.5m. Further cost-cutting is expected next year.
South China Morning Post
24-07-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
China's little-known oversupply problem: insufficient waste amid glut of incinerators
While severe oversupply in Chinese industries ranging from the traditional steel sector to the hi-tech production of solar panels has made headlines recently, one lesser-known sector suffering the same fate is waste-to-energy incineration. The optimistically planned industry, giving China the world's highest processing capacity, is struggling to find enough waste to burn, with experts blaming a slowdown in the growth of supply driven by factors including an economic downturn and slowing urbanisation. Since 2019, the amount of municipal solid waste generated in China has increased by more than 10 per cent, but incineration capacity has more than doubled, resulting in 40 per cent of waste-to-energy incineration capacity sitting idle, according to government data and estimates from researchers. Last year, China collected and transported over 262 million tonnes of municipal solid waste, an increase of about 11 per cent on the 235 million tonnes in 2019, according to data released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. In October last year, there were 1,010 incineration enterprises nationwide with a total capacity of around 1.11 million tonnes a day, the ministry said at a news conference in December. That was more than double the 457,639 tonnes a day reported by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in 2019. In a note issued earlier this month, analysts from Cinda Securities said China's waste incineration plants are seriously underutilised and estimated to be running at an average capacity of 60 per cent.
Times
23-07-2025
- Business
- Times
Informa investors shrug off fears about US acquisition
An increase in full-year revenue forecasts and shareholder returns has increased confidence that the FTSE 100 data and events group Informa could manage any economic downturn in the United States. Shares in Informa rallied nearly 5 per cent on the London Stock Exchange, the biggest rise on the premier index, after the encouraging half-year results. Group revenues of £2 billion were up 7.8 per cent on an underlying basis, ahead of City forecasts, and adjusted operating profit rose 9.2 per cent to £578.9 million. This was driven by demand for live business-to-business events, its largest division, with growth of 8.5 per cent. That and 'good visibility' on the majority of sales for the remainder of the year prompted Informa to upgrade group underlying revenue growth guidance for this year to more than 6 per cent, from more than 5 per cent.
Wall Street Journal
22-07-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
U.S. Mid-Atlantic Factory Activity Contracts at Fastest Rate This Year
Manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region this month deteriorated unexpectedly, driven by lower readings for shipments and new orders as trade uncertainty persisted. The Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing Activity's index for July sank sharply to minus 20 from minus 8 in June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond said Tuesday. A consensus of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected it instead to inch up to minus 6.5.
