Wednesday, February 13, 2008

The Dating Game

Anyone remember CIA "operative" Chuck Barris's The Gong Show or The Dating Game? But look at how times have changed. In USA Today, they had an article about matchmakers, a $236 million dollar business, where some charge $25,000 for their services. A client, a computer consultant said, "We outsource computer work for clients. Why not outsource the initial part of dating, which is meeting the right people in the first place? That's the hard part."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2008-02-12-matchmakers-main_N.htm


If you look at the above clip, it looks like Schwarzenneger has lost a bit of height in 34 years. But California's stature in the US economy has not diminished. And if you check the numbers from the comptroller of California you'll see the dramatic slowdown in retail sales. (page 4)
http://www.controller.ca.gov/ard/cash/0708/jan.pdf

Retail sales and use taxes for January of 2008, were $991,439,000 versus $1,097,669,000 for January of 2007! So when we get retail sales figures out this morning, they'll probably be closer to the Governator's height today.

But maybe now the Bureau of Labor Statistics can create some seasonally adjusted matchmaker jobs!

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