Shirley Temple 'Quote of the Day'

Regular readers will be aware of my many pieces questioning how robust consumer tech will be in an economic downturn. I described this as the "Beer Syndrome". Ie if you couldn't afford to go out you would stay at home, drink beer and play with your gadgets. (The theory only works in a mild downturn. If it is steep, maybe you don't have a home anymore to go home to)

Anyway, Sir Howard Stringer - CEO at Sony - clearly sings from a similar hymn book. Today he was quoted in The Times saying:

"I don't know why consumer electronics are holding up so well at the moment, but in the Great Depression, it was entertainment that held on during that period. Shirley Temple was the solution to the Great Depression at the creative level".

So maybe the iPhone, the Wii or, in the case of Sony, the Playstation3, will be our very own Shirley Temples entertaining us whilst everything else in our lives fall apart.

What a gloomy thought!