Some of the most unusual economic indicators you've probably never heard of-

A thread...

1. Men’s underwear Index: Accordingly to this index, a decline in men’s underwear sales indicates a poor overall state of economy, while an upswing in sales predicts an improving economy.
Hence, by tracking the sales of men's underwear, we might be able to detect the relative health of the economy.
2. The First Date Indicator:
When an economy bottoms out, people seek the comfort of relationships to overcome depression and loneliness. The indicator shows how there is an increased traffic on online dating sites during recession.
This was seen during the crisis of 2008, when US-based online dating service Match. com reported the highest surge in traffic in over seven years.
3. The Garbage Indicator:
The more money people have, the more they buy, and the more they toss away. This indicator suggests that a booming economy is likely to lead to increased waste disposal. According to economists, the indicator has an 82% accuracy to US economic growth.
4. The R-Word Index:
This indicator, created by The Economist, keeps a count on how many times the word “Recession” appears in the news. The idea is that during an economic downturn there is a surge in the usage of the “scary word starting with R.”
5. The Champagne Index:
When you have reasons to celebrate, you pop open a bottle of champagne. So champagne sales are normally associated with rising income levels in the economy. They tell us whether shoppers are buying luxury or premium goods, indicating the market sentiment.
6. Buttered Popcorn Index - Conventional wisdom suggests that when the economy is in tatters, people tend to get frugal. But when times are tough people also need an escape, like watching a movie with a bucket of buttered popcorn.
This indicator shows how the movie business can thrive during an economic downturn. Reports found that the US box office saw one of its best years during the 2008 recession, and plummeted as the markets eased later

You May Also Like

THREAD: 12 Things Everyone Should Know About IQ

1. IQ is one of the most heritable psychological traits – that is, individual differences in IQ are strongly associated with individual differences in genes (at least in fairly typical modern environments). https://t.co/3XxzW9bxLE


2. The heritability of IQ *increases* from childhood to adulthood. Meanwhile, the effect of the shared environment largely fades away. In other words, when it comes to IQ, nature becomes more important as we get older, nurture less.
https://t.co/UqtS1lpw3n


3. IQ scores have been increasing for the last century or so, a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect. https://t.co/sCZvCst3hw (N ≈ 4 million)

(Note that the Flynn effect shows that IQ isn't 100% genetic; it doesn't show that it's 100% environmental.)


4. IQ predicts many important real world outcomes.

For example, though far from perfect, IQ is the single-best predictor of job performance we have – much better than Emotional Intelligence, the Big Five, Grit, etc. https://t.co/rKUgKDAAVx https://t.co/DWbVI8QSU3


5. Higher IQ is associated with a lower risk of death from most causes, including cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, most forms of cancer, homicide, suicide, and accident. https://t.co/PJjGNyeQRA (N = 728,160)