What Does a Game Tell Us About the Economy?
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Foreclosures up 23 percent in the latest quarter.
Home prices down nearly 13 percent in the past 12 months.
Consumer confidence at a five-year low.
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And a $60 video game they just can't keep on the shelves.
Thousands of eager consumers waiting in lines...in lines...to be among the first to scoop up "Grand Theft Auto IV."
A game that's become a cult.
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And a fairly pricey one at that.
60 bucks a pop.
And apparently more than 10 million folks will more than happily pay it.
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Because they just want to play it.
They love the graphics, they love the action, and apparently they love the controversial violence.
Even though, I suspect, many of them don't much love this economy.
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Things are slowing.
They are not.
Things are bad.
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But "Grand Theft Auto" sales are good.
What does a game tell us about the economy?
Not much, save maybe the possibility things aren't nearly so bad as we're told with this economy.
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After all, this is a game, a discretionary purchase.
Games and discretionary purchases don't do well when we're not doing well.
Unless we're doing better than experts say we are.
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The same experts who are confounded by Apple selling nearly two million iPhones last quarter and more than 10 million iPods too.
Which could explain why MasterCard had a great quarter.
Maybe we're charging this.
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Or maybe, just maybe, we're just getting a charge out of this.
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