All Together Now: Play the Game, Mom
THERE may be no better way to bait a baby boomer than to be anything less than totally reverential about the Beatles. So the news that the lads from Liverpool were taking fresh form in a video game (a video game!) called The Beatles: Rock Band struck some of the band’s acolytes as nothing less than heresy.
Luckily, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with the widows of George Harrison and John Lennon, seem to understand that the Beatles are not a museum piece, that the band and its message ought never be encased in amber. The Beatles: Rock Band is nothing less than a cultural watershed, one that may prove only slightly less influential than the band’s famous appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964. By reinterpreting an essential symbol of one generation in the medium and technology of another, The Beatles: Rock Band provides a transformative entertainment experience.
In that sense it may be the most important video game yet made.
Noun Style
As Wal-Mart Stock Stumbles, Tiffany An Unlikely Diamond in the Rough
Despite the Much-Vaunted 'New Frugality', Luxury Stocks Have Bounced Back
Associated Press (Tiffany & Co.); Getty Images
Thanks to emerging markets, shares of luxury companies have outpaced those of more value-minded retailers.
By Brett Arends
Remember the death of luxury? The new frugality? Canned soup capitalism?
That was, like, so nine months ago.
The recession may not even be over, but luxury is already back in fashion—at least, on Wall Street. And this has some messages for investors.
The latest curious data point: so far this year Tiffany stock has left Wal-Mart in the dust. It's not even close.
Anyone who went against last winter's conventional wisdom last winter and invested in the high-priced jeweler has made almost enough money to shop there. They are ahead 51% so far this year. Meanwhile investors who thought they were playing it safe and stuck to defensive, cut-price Wal-Mart, have actually lost 8%.
It's not just Tiffany. The whole luxury sector has bounced back. Coach (COH) is up 40% so far this year. Polo Ralph Lauren: 43%. Overseas giants like Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy and Cartier parent Compagnie Financiere Richemont are up similar amounts.
The Claymore/Robb Report Global Luxury exchange-traded fund (ROB), whose 2007 launch was one of the classic signs of a bull market peak, has risen nearly a third since the start of the year.
What's going on? And what does it mean for your money?
First, of course, it's a sign of how quickly the mood has changed from fear to greed. Luxury companies, whose stocks collapsed during the financial crisis, will be in a sweet spot if consumer spending rebounds—especially now, as companies have slashed overhead.
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