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CES 2009 Shrinks With Dwindling Economy

Posted by kdawson on from the what's-passing-and-what-is-to-come dept.

nandemoari writes "Not long after we first heard murmurs Microsoft may be ready to lay off as much as 17 per cent of its workforce, the popular Consumer Electronics Show, held every year in Las Vegas, is rumored to be shrinking alongside the global economy. The Consumer Electronics Association, host of the CES, estimates that the numbers of both exhibitors and visitors will be down in 2009. The CEA expects about 130,000 people will attend this year, down 11,000 from last year. And about 2,700 exhibitors are expected to attend, down from 3,000 in 2008."

2 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. It's time for this by TimHunter · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Let's see. We spent the last decade or so focusing on consumer electronics and where has that gotten us? We owe China over half a trillion dollars. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt.) We owe our souls to the credit card companies. (http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=6397.) The U.S. lost a half-million jobs in November. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/business/economy/06jobs.html.) Maybe it's time to focus on something besides game consoles and big-screen TVs.

    There's plenty of important things that we can be doing with technology. Here's one http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/american_recovery_and_reinvestment:

    To save not only jobs, but money and lives, we will update and computerize our health care system to cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help reduce health care costs by billions of dollars each year.

    Why don't we spend some time and money on something more important than shiny new toys?

  2. Re:... In inverse proportion to Homeland Security by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    You are absolutely right. I'm European residing in US. Getting a VISA was an extremely humiliating process despite that I came here to do science phd. And they can still refuse my entrance at the borders carrying a valid visa! (without any reason.) I'm and my wife are not allowed to get SSN and without it they treat you as a piece of meat, not a human being. I even can't buy a not-prepaid mobile phone! So I will leave asap. This is not the country of possibilities as it was centuries before.
    So the so-called 'brain-drain' seems to be stopped. And this will ruin the country, while no americans do phd in the field of science and engineering. US will loose control of its world-leading research soon, and as a corollary its world leading position...