I have never seen an economy, it is a group concept like pressure. Some people look at various figures and diagnose the economies health. This is like examining the Yetis leavings to diagnose illness in it.
There is one class of these indicators that I think is really interesting: Length indicators. These are measurable criteria that are used to judge mood and thus how people will spend and earn money.
For women the proposed indicators are hair and skirt length. The logic for skirts is that when money is freely available people are more open and willing to wear short skirts. When times are tough people cover up. So 20’s flappers and 60’s mini’s were eras of economic growth. 30’s and 70’s misery had longer fashions.
For hair the belief is the opposite long is good economy short is bad.
Of course men cannot be judged by such frippery. Instead you judge men moods with big powerful jutting: skyscrapers. When things are going bad no one builds them. When things are going well they try outdo each other with their size (this theory is comedy gold). So just when someone is trying to build the biggest is when a recession comes. Andrew Lawrence’s skyscraper index theory is described here
So U2 building a giant new skyscraper in Dublin would indicate our economy is about to go into recession.
The highly sexist nature of the indices makes me highly dubious that they are meant to be taken seriously. I have noticed though that when a country is doing well beer must be from far away and served pretentiously. Could the % of beer sales that are from domestic brewery’s be a good economic indicator? If you have any theories on what correlates with economic confidence please comment.
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