How to Tell If Times Are Bad

“DURING a recession, laxatives go up, because people are under tremendous stress, and holding themselves back,” said Mr. Shapiro, now chief executive of SAGE, a Chicago-based consulting firm. “During a boom, deodorant sales go up, because people are out dancing around. When people have less money, they buy more of the things that have less water in them, things that are not so perishable. Instead of lettuce and steak and fruit, it’s rice and beans and grain and pasta. Except this time the price of pasta’s so high that it’s beans and rice.” (From “A Hemline Index, Updated,” NYT). 🙂

I’ll tag this post “American culture” because I think the article is great proof of the insatiable appetite for research in this society. I’m a true admirer of this intellectual curiosity and interest in trying to find out how things are and why. Here’s another good example: a graphic that aggregates enormous amounts of data into a snapshot of a few economic indicators since 1950: Can a President Tame the Business Cycle? Roll the mouse over the little stripes to see the year, the indicators’ year-over-year percent change, and who controlled the Congress.

Pretty impressive.