Anecdotal Ways of Tracking the Economy

Evidence of the health of an economy abounds in both good times and bad.  The evidence is often laying in plain sight just waiting for someone to notice it, and much more importantly, to understand it.  Let me share with you two of my favorite ways of telling whether or not the U.S. economy is doing well.

1.  The number of pages in magazines and catalogs.

When the economy is booming the page count in magazines is very, very large.  The reason is that consumer driven economies, like the U.S., are driven by purchases of retail stuff.  That stuff needs to be advertised to compete with all of the other things that are being offered.  Hence, advertising is necessary.

When economies enter and exit recession and people aren’t buying as much stuff then the number of ad pages declines.

Compare the number of ad pages in your favorite magazine now to what it was a year ago, to what it was two years ago, and to what it was three years ago.

The page count is directly related to the health of the economy.

2.  The number of repeated photographs in catalogs.

Catalogs are very expensive to produce, print and to mail to consumers.

One of the easiest ways to cut back on catalog production costs is to keep selling the same clothes.  This results in fewer buyers on the payroll and lower manufacturing costs.  It also lowers the production costs as you need to engage in fewer photo shoots.  So the reuse of photographs in a catalog is a sign of tough times for that catalog.

So how many repeated photographs are there in your favorite catalog?

There are many other anecdotal ways to track the progress in the economy.  I will share more in the future.

Jason