Slog
News & ArtsThursday, March 12, 2009
Arts / TV / Theater "The recession has spread from Wall Street to Sesame Street."
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 12:19 PM
Sesame Workshop will lay off a fifth of its staff:
A spokeswoman did not elaborate on the reasons for the move, but the workshop has relied heavily on donations from Wall Street firms, large corporations and private foundations, all of which have been cutting back on philanthropic activities.
The group's latest accounts - for the year to last June - show that "volatility in the financial markets" had depleted the investment portfolio on which its long-term financial viability depends. The portfolio recorded a $9.27m loss for the fiscal year, down from a $22.7m gain a year earlier.
Also today in the crappy, crappy arts economy:
The Art Institute of Chicago will raise its ticket price by 50%.
Massive financial crisis at the Philly Orchestra, which you may remember from Fantasia.
And New York cancels its 4% theater-ticket tax.
(Thanks to Slog tipper xom and ArtsJournal. Photo from flickr.)
1
beware a large blue creature lurking around the harvard market qfc asking passers-by for a spare cookie.
2
can we use this opportunity to retire the lazy financial journalism dichotomy of "wall street" vs. "main street"
main street conjures up small town america, complete with five and dime stores and soda fountains. those kinds of businesses haven't been central to the american economy since the 70s; amazon, MS, and boeing aren't on "main street." faulty labels, even if they are good populist shorthand, make for faulty dialogue and faulty solutions.
the sesame street economy on the other hand fits perfectly
main street conjures up small town america, complete with five and dime stores and soda fountains. those kinds of businesses haven't been central to the american economy since the 70s; amazon, MS, and boeing aren't on "main street." faulty labels, even if they are good populist shorthand, make for faulty dialogue and faulty solutions.
the sesame street economy on the other hand fits perfectly
3
Oscar the Grouch, of course, will ride out the hard times as if nothing has changed. He had the forethought to stockpile easily bartered goods (including guns) in his alternative-living domicile.
4
Wait, why do they have to rely on corporate donations? They sell a zillion pounds of those CTW toys (exactly none of which have volume knobs, by the way) every year. Why are they not self-supporting?!?
5
All I know is we better have cookies at SLOG Happy tonight, if the Cookie Monster is looking for handouts.
7
Hm, I think The Count will also do okay in this economy, as he can not only survive by sucking blood, he can turn around and re-sell it to a plasma bank.
8
The Best thing to advocate now is the legalization of Marijuana... Obama SHOULD SUPPORT HEMP POT GANJA WEED WHATEVER WE CALL IT!!!
Cheif Kerlikowski as CZAR is cool cause YOU know the BIG boozers get there's.... and the pot heads NEED more hemp and FRANK BLETHYN SHOULD PRINT HIS NEWS ON HEMP PAPER!
besides... all the really hip peopl know that hemp seeds make the best "slick" lubes in the world. Very durale and good for the skin as well.
Cheif Kerlikowski as CZAR is cool cause YOU know the BIG boozers get there's.... and the pot heads NEED more hemp and FRANK BLETHYN SHOULD PRINT HIS NEWS ON HEMP PAPER!
besides... all the really hip peopl know that hemp seeds make the best "slick" lubes in the world. Very durale and good for the skin as well.
9
Aff, that's the point isn't it? Replace the term "Wall Street" with the interchangeable term "Corporate America". Get it? Also, look outside of King County once in a while. I can guarantee you that few local ecomonies are built on Amazon, Microsoft and Beoing. Go over to the coast or to Eastern Washington and you'll see how important Main Street is.
14
Those financial CEOs seeing bonuses need to donate a big portion of them to CTW and the arts, stat.
Makes me mad.
Makes me mad.
15
@9 - point well taken, wall street is just as much a shorthand for corporate america, as mainstreet is a shorthand for not corporate america. my only point is that "main street" generally means small towns, which are becoming more and more unimportant in the economic scheme of things; 75% US economic activity is located in just 100 metro areas. see http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2009/0…, and constantly referring to main street obscures that. i would guess that the UW med center turns over more dollars in a year than every restaurant/diner/mom and pop five and dime in the rest of the state combined. easily.
it's sort of like how every 4 years we pretend that towns in rural iowa or rust belt small cities like gary, indiana are representative of the country, when Phoenix sprawl, LA, Seattle, Atlanta, Houston, NYC and Chicago, Arlington county in VA, are much more representative. so in that sense i am just echoing the urban archipelago thesis the stranger put out in 04.
still, i bet the pie is better on main street...
it's sort of like how every 4 years we pretend that towns in rural iowa or rust belt small cities like gary, indiana are representative of the country, when Phoenix sprawl, LA, Seattle, Atlanta, Houston, NYC and Chicago, Arlington county in VA, are much more representative. so in that sense i am just echoing the urban archipelago thesis the stranger put out in 04.
still, i bet the pie is better on main street...
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