Friday, January 04, 2008

Of Barack, toys and Hong Kong

I don't want to be the only blogger in the world not mentioning Obama's thrashing of Hilary in Iowa. Somewhat off-target for our blog, but there is a connection and here goes:

  1. Sen. Obama, far closer in age to being a toy-user than any of his opponents, said just before Christmas that he thinks that Chinese toys are nasty and should be banned. By 23rd December, he had retreated a little from that position.
  2. The fact that his position was ridiculous is made clear by this Hong Kong Standard piece about prospects for the toy industry which notes that "86 percent of toys sold in the US market are made in China".
  3. The piece also refers to next week's Toy Fair, the first big exhibition of the year in Hong Kong. It will be an interesting event to watch for any signs of fall-out from last year's toy safety scandals and the threat of a slowing US economy.

No comments: