THE CONTEXT - 2008

Election 2008: Taking a Financial Flyer on the Race for the US presidency:

The following information from the news dated 16/10/08, shows the heat of election 2008, for which the financial crisis is taken as the weapon for the race. A Portuguese online bank, Banco Best, is offering deposits tied to the results of the U.S. presidential election: If U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., wins the White House, Banco Best will pay 8% for the period between the deposit and Nov. 4; if Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., wins, the bank will pay 2%. That reflects the general preference for Obama held in Europe; it's worth noting that the bank's not offering an equivalent deposit product biased the other way, which

by all the rules of hedging it should be (opening branches in Arizona and Wasilla, Alaska, where

demand might be expected to be greatest, for example). You don't need to go to Portugal to bet on the election. At Iowa Electronic Markets, or IEM, Obama is currently trading at 85 cents asked, so if you bet $85, you stand to be repaid $100 if Obama wins. You can get much better odds on McCain; you only need to bet $16 to win $100 if he wins. Aside from the amusement value, there's actually a very real hedging question here. Most of the differences between Obama and McCain come down to questions of policy preference that are difficult to express in a monetary form. Thus, the two candidates' policies on the Middle East have quite different implications.

Reference: Online News: Monday Morning dated 10/16/08

Economy:

Crude oil monumental price drops on friday 31st oct has given

rare dose of relief to the consumers. prices fell 32 % for the month which has stunned the oil producing countries. pump prices have fallen $4 a gallon and it is expected to an $100 billion annual savings to the american householders. Reference

The price drop connects to the previous record of 30% drop in feb 1986. Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy said

that month started with $ 100 per barrel and ended with $65 today. In june this year the crude hit a record price of $147 per barrel. At a pump, a gallon of regular gasoline fell 4.3 cents overnight to a national average of $ 2.504, according to auto club AAA. According to Deutsche bank reseach, for every dollar that comes off pump prices, US households save a $ 100 billion a year-money that can be spent on other goods and services to jolt the economy. Deutsche bank estimates that the $ 100 billion would be worth 3 million new jobs. Deutsche bank seimenski predicts that the week global economy and the falling oil prices will average the oil price to $ 50 a barrel. OPEC and international energy agencies predicted earlier this year that the oil deman will increase 800,000 barrel a day next year driven by growing developing countries like China and India. USA GDP shrank to 0.3% annual rate in the July-september last quarter. Commerce department said that it marked the worst showing of the world's largest economy since it contracted at a 1.4% pace in the third quarter of 2001. Reference

Economy Shrink Organization of the petroleum Exporting countries announced plans to cut 1.5 million barrels of production per day. Venezuela's oil minister Rafael Ramire

z says OPEC, which controls about 40% of the world crude oil production will need to cut production atleast another 1 million barrels per day to boost falling prices.

Economy Shrinks:

The latest GDP reding marked a rapid loss of traction for the economy, which logged growth of 2.8% in the second quarter. Consumers ratcheted back their spending to 3.1% in the third quarter. Labor department said on thursday that the jobless claims stood at 4,79000 for the month of october where as the predictions were 4,70000. Jobless claims above 400,000 are considered a sign of a struggling economy. This 6.1% of Unemployment could hit 8% next year. many economists believe that the economy will continue to contract for next year. Americans disposable income fell at an annual rate of 8.7% in the third quarter. Consumers cut back on purchses of cars, furniture, household appliances, clothes and other things and this happened after the bracing impact of the governments tax rebates dissappeared. Businesses cutback sharply by not spending on equipment and software at a 5.5% pace. Home builders also slashed spending at a 19.1% marking the 11th straingt quarterly cutback, and fresh evidence of the depth of the housing slump. Exports grew at a 5.9% in the third quarter, a sharp deceleration from the second quarter's 12.3% growth rate. The economic downturn in

the third quarter was mainly due to inflation, which rose to 2.9% from 2.2% in the second quarter. Reference

Advertising 2008:

Adevertising in 2008 is totally celebrity oriented and they are the special attraction of the media.The following pictures shows Britney spears and Jennifer Lopez promoting the Denim:

The video on the following link, also shows the trend and new dress attractions wore by the celebrities, which has become the hot topic for the media. Also the selection of dresses shows the color which is popular in these days. It shows that white and black color are very popular and the maximum dresses worn by the celebrities are of those colors.

Eva mendes launched last month her bedding line vida with her boy freind designer George Augusto

Obama's chances for winning the presidency Race:

Barack obama and john mccain have a litigation game plan to accompany their election strategy. The investment for this race is increasing. As this news we know that democrats have invested millions of dollars to get the new voters. And even US supreme court has confirmed democrats victory in ohio, dissolving a court order obtained by Republicans to force state officials to release the list of 200,000 new voters whose names or addresses don't match government databases. In this way in several places the republicans are caught for getting all fake votes.

Also the following video posted in the barackobama website shows the drawbacks of republicans to loose race of presidency and also gives the idea of how the financial crisis became such a big issue affecting the whole world.

From the News in The Wall street Journal:

In this article we see that the poll conducted by the WSJ shows that the maximum people are very much confident on Senator Barack Obama winning the presidential race. The tricks played by Senator Mc Cain against Barack Obama have not worked. Overall, the poll found 52% of voters favor Sen. Obama versus 42% for Sen. McCain. McCain lagging in key battleground states, which hold the electoral votes that could decide the race. The article also tells that the ideas of Senator Mc Cain reflect President Bush, which seems to be the drawback. Also the Graph represents that the votes for Barack Obama are increasing and that of Mc Cain are decreasing.

Financial crisis/Lifestyle of Luxury Executives:

The Federal government is spending billions of dollars on the banks to control the financial crisis, the employment rate is getting lower and lower day-by-day, and the big guns of the industry are loosing hope on the market condition. Does these all factors cause the lifestyle and the spending of the Luxury executives.

Francesco Trapani, chief executive of Bulgari Group, sold his 137-foot yacht, the "C

hristianne B," and he's holding off on buying any more

homes. Even his bespoke Micocci shirt was slightly frayed at the collar. Barry Sternlicht, chairman and chief executive of the private investment fund Starwood Capital, after buying champagne maker Taittinger, the Hotel de Crillon in Paris and Baccarat, is worrying about the financial tsunami. London-based designer Graeme Black cut his prices by about 20% for his spring 2009 season, and the design house Viktor & Rolf tried to save money by airing an online film of their collection rather than staging a show. (It turned out that the filming cost as much as a show would have). These examples show that the financial crisis has badly affected the normal life of the luxury executives. ( Read the Article)

Even then the luxury market is building up in India, china and Russia. This shows that the financial crisis has affected the main fashion cities or luxury markets but the expansion of market is not stopping rather it is expanding very fast. Linda Fargo, Bergdorf's fashion director says that retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman were planning to buy more carefully for the spring season, which have not got affected by the financial tsunami but are just envisioning it.

Ralph Lauren opening a store in Paris and further plans to open a store in Istanbul also show that the luxury market is least affected by the financial crisis. Above all Mr Tripani says that

"The things that are happening are so big, that it would be silly to assume they won't have an impact."
Fashionomics:
The Spring 2009 runway collections shown at Newyork, Milan and paris shows the affect of economic climate on most of the designers, taking care to present clothes for the working women. All the designs were inspired from the 1920's to 1980's updated for the modern women. ( Pls see the graphical representation).

Fashion by the First Lady:

Democrats and Republicans are the main attraction these days and fashion perspective will obviously drive our concentration towards the ladies, Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama, what they are wearing and what is the media talking about. The video (click here), will show what are they wearing and what color they are choosing these days.

Cindy's look is all about classic, tailored pieces with bold colors. she often turns to the designs by Oscar de la Renta, who was preferred by Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton.

Michelle favors less constructed styles, jewel tones and floral prints.Michelle favors less constructed styles and she is compared to Jacqueline Kennedy.

The Latest Cars released by the companies:

AUDI 2010 BENTLY 09

CHEVROLET 2011

FERRARI 2009

Latest Bag designs by Ralph Lauren:

Rate: $16995 Rate: $19800

Movies:

The year 2008 movies are mainly focused on teen generation.

High school Musical 3 is top movie with $ 15 Million

Competitirs and the Target Market:

The following link is the report of the IBIS World on the leather bag industries in USA and the major players in the US market. This report mainly shows the three major players, samsonite, wilson and the coach. The concentration of this three major players is the regions like south west, mid east and far west.

This report also explains in detail about the Hand bag industry and the above three companies are the major competitors in this industry.