And yet here we are. The kneejerk explanation is always inflation, supply chains, bad timing - temporary variables with temporary fixes. But a growing number of economists are pointing at something much deeper and much less comfortable: the slow-motion collapse of an economy that stopped making things and started making money instead. Today we're looking at what happens when the fictitious economy runs out of road.

- Devin Pike, Copywriter

The Verge reports that a leaked publisher letter outlines Xbox's plan to launch a Disc-to-Digital program this month. This would allow Xbox One and Series X owners to convert physical game discs into permanent digital licenses tied to their accounts. The upcoming Project Helix console will keep a disc drive. Original Xbox games are heading to PC in October. And Xbox 360 titles will roll out across next-gen devices between 2027 and 2028 - if publishers opt in.

The timing is pointed: Sony just announced it's killing physical PlayStation discs entirely in 2028. Microsoft appears to be positioning Helix as the console for people who still actually own things.

In considerably better financial news, the LA Times reports that Spotify has crossed 300 million premium subscribers for the first time - making it the first audio streaming service ever to hit the milestone. Revenue climbed 14% to US$4.78 billion in Q2. Gross margin hit a record 33.4%. And the company swung from an $86 million loss last year to a $545 million net profit this quarter. The stock dropped 6% anyway because monthly active users missed forecasts by one million. Wall Street remains the ultimate killjoy.

And finally, BMW just discovered what happens when you put an ad inside a product someone already paid five figures for. Engadget reports that BMW pushed a Spider-Man: Brand New Day promotional banner to millions of car dashboards via an over-the-air update, in more than 70 countries, running from July 27 to August 10. Starting the car brings up the banner - tap it and a full-screen animation with ambient lighting and music takes over the cabin.

The backlash was immediate. BMW's own Senior VP of Connected Services said on record in 2023 that the car was "a private space" and the company would not sell in-car screen space for commercials. Over-the-air updates are very useful. Turns out they also let carmakers change what you bought after you bought it.

- Devin Pike, Copywriter

This is not a bit for an article. I seriously felt both upset, and ill at the same time.

It’s a crisis that millions of humans experience every single week. A sudden, sharp panic over the fact that meeting basic human survival needs has become a financial obstacle course. The standard response from mainstream media and political commentators is always to blame immediate, temporary variables. Seasonal inflation or supply chain disruptions.

But if you look past the superficial political theatre and listen to the structural undercurrents of global finance, a potential reality emerges: the downfall of the Western economic empire.

We live inside the volatile endgame of what economists call the Fictitious Economy. To understand how we arrived at a point where the once-prosperous middle class is struggling to buy butter, you have to trace the multi-decade cannibalisation of our physical infrastructure.

In the immediate post-World War II era, the Western economy was an unmatched weapon of mass production. Holding a near-monopoly on global manufacturing, it formed the rock-solid bedrock of a thriving middle class. One where a single, stable income could comfortably support a family, secure a home, and build generational equity.

Then came the 1970s, and the system discovered a much faster, lazier way to generate wealth: the leveraged buyout.

This aggressive manoeuvre of acquiring real companies using massive amounts of borrowed money spawned the modern monster known as Private Equity.

This entire industry doesn't make money based on what a factory produces or how well a farm grows; it makes money based on Assets Under Management. The bigger your portfolio, the higher your corporate fees, creating an unyielding incentive for rapid financial expansion over actual physical production.

To fuel this mass financialisation, the corporate machine systematically outsourced physical manufacturing to cheap labour countries like China.

The real economy of physical goods |?n foundations to fund a digital casino.

They happen when things suddenly and violently worsen after a period of relative expectation.

The corporate machine has spent decades convincing the middle class that paper wealth and digital optimisation would trick the laws of physics forever. But you cannot eat a data pipeline, and you cannot build a stable society out of leveraged debt.

When the current AI speculation bubble inevitably pops, the collision with physical reality is going to be... well, I’ll leave that to your imagination. 

What do you think?

-Sophie Randell, Writer

"Chic" used to just mean you had your own thing going on. Now it's become a policing word, dictating what's in, what's out, what gives people the ick, moving so fast nobody can actually keep up. This trend reclaims the word. People are using "kinda chic to..." for things that genuinely make them feel good, not things that make them look impressive. It's a real photo carousel or video from your life with soft yellow text overlaid saying "kinda chic to..." followed by something true.

My fav examples include:

Pick a real photo or video, then overlay text in that soft butter yellow everyone's using right now. Start with "kinda chic to..." and finish with something that used to feel like a flaw or an insecurity and now just feels like you.

A few ideas to get you started:

-abdel khalil, brand & marketing exec

Hey Chloe!

There are so many ways you can create content around a service like this. One of the easiest content styles you can use is just answering FAQs you get. You can create a list of questions clients ask or have AI help you come up with some. Or you can find others in your industry who already have a following and see what people ask them in the comments.

Once you have a list of questions you can answer, record your team answering them. At the end of each video, ask the audience to put more questions for you to answer in the comments. You can always branch out and try other content styles over time. But this is an easily repeatable, low production content style that allows you to show off your expertise.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.