Just a month after Geoff Williams reported that the economic stimulus package was stimulating more than just checking accounts, it turns out that the adult entertainment industry isn't able to keep it up. Wired reports that the porn industry is feeling the effects of increased oil prices as well as restricted consumer spending. These factors are further exaggerated by an onslaught of piracy and free amateur content. The economy is affecting everyone in the industry, from the producers to the front line retailers who are experiencing rental drops of up to 15% and DVD sales falling as well.

I think I've exhausted the number of play on words I can include in one article so I'll take a break to examine what limp porn sales mean for the economy (seriously I'm done now). While it can be argued that the industry is simply coming to grips with the same factors that have been affecting the music industry over the past 5 years that answer is simply the low hanging fruit. It's not like free and pirated porn has grown so much over the past year that the industry is tanking just because Joe Schmo is sharing pics of his ex girlfriend. Porn is actually a lagging indicator of the economy, much the way that online advertising is considered a lagging indicator.

Like moths to a flame, the illegal sex industry will flock to this summer's political conventions in Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul.
The Rocky Mountain News summed up the situation thusly: "Political tricks may not be the only ones turned during the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August." Indeed, one helpful poster on the mile high city's Craigslist site headlined their ad bluntly , "So, You Want to be an Escort, But You Don't Know How" though it does say that "flakes and drama queens" need not apply.

Strip clubs are also expecting great business from the conventions. The paper quoted one Beverly Chastain, a door girl at a local gentleman's club, saying that reservations should start picking up this month. (Speaking of "gentlemen," did the code of chivalry discuss shoving money into a woman's G-string?)

Folks in the Twin Cities are also putting their Midwestern entrepreneurial spirit to the test in time for the GOP convention. I found one poster on Craigslist advertising what he -- odds are that it is a male -- called a "great opportunity for escorts." In a move that I'm sure will fool the vice cops, the poster emphatically states that his company is NOT a front for prostitution though he does say "what you do during your time is of a personal choice between consenting adults of legal age."

Clears that up, doesn't it?