Beyoncé's bills, bills, bills kept Sweden’s inflation surprisingly high

June 16, 2023 10:12 AM

Queen Bey’s concert in Sweden’s capital apparently put its economy in a tizzy.... [Michael Grahn, chief economist for Sweden at Danske Bank] assessed that the concert days probably accounted for 0.2 of the 0.3 percentage points added to inflation by hotels and restaurant prices.
posted by Etrigan (10 comments total)

I love the little note at the end: "An economist told the Financial Times that Sweden could experience a similar inflation bump when Bruce Springsteen plays three nights of concerts in Gothenburg June."
posted by hippybear at 10:17 AM on June 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

[Capital] Formation
posted by chavenet at 10:24 AM on June 16, 2023 [5 favorites]

[applauds chavenet]
posted by latkes at 10:39 AM on June 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

previously on Black Royalty and Inflation
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:54 PM on June 16, 2023 [4 favorites]

I couldn't quite land a "Beyoncé Musa" headline.
posted by Etrigan at 2:04 PM on June 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

Compare and contrast:

- The Taylor Swift The Eras tour will have generated an estimated $5 billion in economic impact, more than the gross domestic product of 50 countries.

- Beyoncé Gets Blamed for New Inflation Surge in Sweden, Inflation rates recently rose in Sweden after Beyoncé brought her Renaissance World Tour to Stockholm on May 10.

I just picked two random articles, but there are many more spinning the same line. Successful White artist = good for the economy, Successful Black artist = bad for the economy.
posted by Lanark at 2:19 PM on June 16, 2023 [14 favorites]

It does make me wonder how much of the global inflation numbers, or even just in the US, are because suddenly every artist possible is trying to tour all at once. Surge pricing, I mean price gouging drives up prices everywhere.

How expensive are hotel rooms in the eclipse zone, for example?
posted by hippybear at 2:22 PM on June 16, 2023

Somewhat related, I got an emergency fundraising message from the Chicago Abortion Fund the other week.

Taylor Swift was in town for multiple days and every hotel room in the city was sold out and overpriced. The CAF claimed that the women they were assisting couldn't afford to come into town that weekend. I'm a bit skeptical because we have a large ring of suburbs with lots of hotel rooms but there you go.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:17 AM on June 17, 2023

I feel like if we're at the point where price gouging for popular events like concerts are affecting national inflation numbers, we're really truly in Late Stage Capitalism.
posted by hippybear at 8:15 AM on June 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

I feel like if we're at the point where price gouging for popular events like concerts are affecting national inflation numbers, we're really truly in Late Stage Capitalism.

I think this is dramatically overstated. Local events regularly overwhelm local hotels. Heck I tried to go to a big state park a few weeks ago, and the state park was closed due to a fishing tournament. This stuff happens. It's completely normal. Also stadiums and concerts don't create much economic gains - this has been studied endlessly. They move economic activity from other activities to the concert or game while simultaneously retarding a measurable amount of alternate economic activity (ie: people who would have gone to the Sweeden for the weekend but wouldn't pay the elevated rates).
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:09 AM on June 20, 2023