The task force's Mapping Document argues that 'unlike many other industry sectors, creative industries continue to benefit from high growth rates and expanding global markets'. Its success is part of the 2.5 billion sales of the art and antiques market that the task force celebrates and Hughes's cottage industry part of the 71 per cent increase in artists and designers. This is great for our culture, but the task force's argument that the creative industries are the solution for the British economy is less plausible. Fuelling the market for the fine arts are profits that in other times would be re-invested in production. Shareholders demand higher rates of return from their shares, and are spending more of their money on themselves.
Luxury goods are buoyant.
Sports car sales have risen 248 per cent in five years and the luxury housing market by 124 per cent. Behind the boom are historically low rates of investment in business. In absolute terms, investment appears to have recovered since the low-point of 1992. But compared to GDP, private investment has only risen from 10 per cent to 12 per cent in 1997, way below the 15 per cent of 1989. As less is invested, more is available for luxury goods.