The Lipstick Effect

The Lipstick Effect: what is it all about?

  First brought into spotlight by Leonard Lauder, the chairman emeritus of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., the Lipstick Effect states that during economic hardships and crises, consumers tend to buy more lipstick instead of expensive items such as jewelries, apparel or the like. Proponents of this theory refer to the fact that after the 9/11, statistics showed an 11% rise in demand for lipsticks. Later, in 2008, Lauder said that he had noted a rise in his company’s sales of lipstick. Similarly, during the Great Depression, cosmetic sales rose while the economy was experiencing some of its darkest days....

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Inflation: when the money dies

  Consider country X as a fictional country. The economy of this country has all the characteristics of a normal economy: Markets trade goods, individuals take part in financial affairs and institutions regulate the process of business in different sectors. Two decades ago in this country people used to buy chocolate for 2$ apiece. These days, however, people pay $3.5 for a bar of chocolate. This increase in price makes people to either pay more for the same amount of quantity that they used to buy, or to buy fewer amounts with the same amount of money. To explain this,...

Black Monday

  On October 19, 1987 stock markets around the world crashed, a global financial crisis which started from Hong Kong and was spread to Europe and the United States as well. It came be to known as the Black Monday.     Wall Street went mad. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 508 points (22%) to 1738.74, a $500 billion decrease in value which is still the biggest one-day loss in the history of the index. S&P 500 also dropped 57.64 points (20.4%) to 225.06. There have been numerous reasons as to why this massive drop happened. Although many blame...

The Conjunction Fallacy

  Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations. Which choice is more probable? Linda is a bank teller Linda is a bank teller and is active in feminist movement According to the laws of probability, the latter one must be less likely than the other one, as for it to be true, it needs two conditions to be met: first, Linda must be a bank teller and then she must also be a...