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The Global Economy Podcast was recently voted one of iTunes top podcasts for 2009! Quite an honor. Thank you, good folks at iTunes. Also on the esteemed list: President Obama’s Weekly Radio Address, 60 Minutes, and Old Jews Telling Jokes. While I’m not sure of the criteria used in the voting, we at The World are very happy to receive the recognition.
Some of the stories on this edition of the podcast… A story of love, or rather, a story about the economics of love. During tough times, people need entertainment, a distraction, a daydream. One industry that seems to be doing rather well, throughout the globe, is romance fiction.
We’ll also hear a story about Islamic financing, a piece about the green economy in India, and an interesting new marketing campaign from Chrysler featuring Burma’s pro-democracy movement Aung San Suu Kyi.
Great show!
To set the record straight, Japanese women request the original English versions of books NOT because of some notion of American women having a higher place in society (which is true, but irrelevant). It’s because:
1) In Japan, people who can converse fluently in English with native speakers or read an English novel are looked up at. Pulling out their original English version at Starbucks is bound to fetch comments of “Wow! You’re smart!”
2) English language learning is a huge industry in Japan, and a common hobby for housewives. It’s just fun to study English (or put their English to use) by reading the original version of a book they enjoy. I can’t tell you how many Japanese people I saw reading Harry Potter in English. In the bookstore, there was a book series called “How to Read Harry Potter in English”.
An informed answer in case anyone wanted to know :) Merry Christmas!