Unusual economic indicators to think about...and watch

One can easily get confused by the government numbers flying around out there on the state of the economy...notable items include GDP, inflation, unemployment rates, manufacturing utilisation, trade surpluses/deficits and size of currency reserves.

With the exception of unemployment and inflation, many of us struggle to picture their meaning and relate them back to our daily lives in terms of how the real economy is doing.

Time Magazine has just come up with a quirky list to gauge how the high street is doing:
- immigration numbers
- babies born
- sales figures for men's underwear
- the reselling of cemetery plots
- the number of hikers
- coupon redemptions
- long distance relationships
- animal abandonment
- army ads get "tougher"
- hot waitress index

In Hong Kong, I'm adding:
- the number of people consulting fungshui masters and mediums (eg voodoo grandmas under a Wanchai footbridge to drive away bad luck and banish evil spirits)

While the first four can be measured with confidence, the remaining "anecdotal" indicators are quite thought-provoking. Time's link is below.

http://cheapskate.blogs.time.com/2009/09/25/ten-odd-economic-indicators-hot-waitresses-mens-underwear-blacked-out-football-games-and-more/