Originally Posted by
T-Mar
Very interesting. Thxs for generating and posting the graph. The early 1970s boom is still readily apparent, though the bust has been softened (in the USA it was a 50% drop in sales). The 1975 to 1988 increase is also twice the sales rate seen in the USA and the unlike the world, the USA continued to see an uptrend in sales through to 2000.
Your latter fact is very intriguing. One does not think of the US as a place that outdoes the world in the consumption of bicycles, of all things. Beer, sausage, televisions, cars, sure; but, bicycles?
Originally Posted by
T-Mar
Are boom and bust relative terms or is there a defined threshold in terms of % increase and decrease? Or is any increase technically a boom while any decrease is a bust?
I think they're like pornography ... you know it when you see it.