Joe Francis and Larry Flynt will ask Congress for a bailout:
Is the porn industry up next for a bailout? If porn titans Joe Francis and Larry Flynt have anything to do with it, it will.
Yes, ladies and gentleman, the titans of pornography are begging for a bailout.
Joe Francis, creator of the “Girl’s Gone Wild” video series, and Larry Flynt, founder of Hustler, will ask Congress for a $5 billion bailout, according to TMZ.
Why does the porn industry need a bailout? Because apparently even porn is getting smacked by the recession.
XXX DVD sales have taken a hit – about a 22% hit, according to TMZ.
“With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind,” Flynt is quoted as saying on TMZ. “It’s time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America.”
Cute.
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I say give it to them.
Me too.
This is a joke. If there is one thing that goes up during economically depressed times, it is sexual activity. Check this:
“Perhaps Marks & Spencer has seen the latest research from a Norfolk-based analyst. Apparently, the way for retailers to defy the doom and gloom is to focus on the market “for sex and fantasy-related goods for women”. This market should grow from £150 million this year to as much as £1.1 billion by 2012 as people want to “feel better about life”, Hewson Group said. “If imaginative effort is put into branding and packaging to sell women’s erotica as if it was an extension of the luxury goods sector, the social taboos will come down.” ”
(Source: http://business.timesonline.co.....19682.ece)
Also, check out these freshly googled newspaper headline:
Hard times haven’t dealt bad hand to “sin industries”
Seattle Times, United States – Jan 2, 2009
Sex, Lies and Videotapes Thriving in Recession
DigitalJournal.com, Canada – Dec 13, 2008
More sex predicted for 2009
hotpress.com (subscription), Ireland – Jan 4, 2009
and don’t forget this:
Sex And Recession
Forbes, NY – Dec 19, 2008
They’re probably finding it hard (no pun intended) these days as no one is actually buying porn but rather downloading it or streaming it for free off the net. I have no doubts that the interest in porn and sex for that matter is as high, if not higher than ever. But, people just aren’t as willing to fork out the cash for it.
With the amount of porn which is available for free off the net these days, and quality stuff at that I might add, only a fool would continue to buy it, whether it be traditional media such as Hustler magazine or paid online media such as Girls Gone Wild.
Larry and Joe no doubt are suffering though I’m not in favor of giving them a bailout, they should have been more creative and kept up with the changing environment before it came to a head (again, no pun intended!).
You know, given the programs by Japan, Korea, Singapore, etc. to increase birth rates, perhaps there should be an export market created.
You also got to consider the possible headlines: “Two boobs seek aid”
**Finance geek comment warning**
This, to me, is an interesting example of how normal thinking goes haywire in panic times. (Background – a credit default swap [CDS] is basically an insurance contract that a lender buys from a third party. So, if I lend $100 to Robert and I’m worried he might not pay me, I go to WangKon and ask him for a CDS. WangKon offers me 300 points, meaning that, if I pay WangKon $3, WangKon agrees to pay me $100 in case Robert defaults. Obviously, if WangKon asks for a higher price, this should reflect a higher liklihood of Robert defaulting.)
The following is pulled from Accrued Interest”
What has gone haywire is that there is NO WAY that someone who lends money to the state of California is taking a bigger risk than someone lending money to JP Morgan.
And here’s a picture of two girls kissing on a bed
Japan is a world leader in porn.
Very low birth rate.
@El Cangaru: did you not see this?
“the market “for sex and fantasy-related goods for women”. This market should grow from £150 million this year to as much as £1.1 billion by 2012 as people want to “feel better about life”” So yes, people are willing to fork out money for sex-related goods in bad times, in order to cop a better feel in life.
With regards to free porn downloads: (1) I have made it a point to never pay for any, (2) I don’t see why an economic downturn would make this any worse – all the afficionados I know have been getting it free for years.
@Linkd: yours was possibly the perfect comment, as far as I am concerned. Certainly the best I have read in memory. It contained a radical change of topic (or at least topic focus), included some new information that I was happy to learn (I know know a little about CDS) and then finished off with a non sequitur happy snap! I laughed out loud in my workplace. The pic will have to wait for home.
#9 – Hamel, I did miss that. Now, it’s got me thinking of a way to try to muscle into that industry but the only ’sex and fantasy-related good for women’ I possess is myself and I doubt that will yield too much money.
didn’t that guy murder someone? whatever happened to that?
It’s amazing how low the birth rate is in Japan with all of the porn going on.
The guy’s must get secret vasectomies or something.
Also, I believe that if a woman doesn’t want to have a baby with a guy, her mental state plays a role in the chances of conception.
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