Ax l's Bo fire
U imate Ele tr nics
Abb 's
These are just a few of the sign's I've seen whilst driving through the Twin Cities at night where a light has gone out in one or more of the letters that are prominently displayed on the store's front or sign.
And while I have seen burnt out lights in the past before, never have I seen it to this extent.
I theorize it is a sign of harsh economic times and makes me wish that a more longitudinal record of "burnt out sign lights" had been recorded so as to be used as a metric to measure the severity and harshness of a recession.
Anybody else noticing this?
5 comments:
I sense a graph coming on...
Tell the NBER to add this to their list of Leading Economic Indicators.
Given that it took them a full year to "call" this recession, I think they need better indicators.
My leading indicator is whatever is being advertised in a bank's front window. That's where they openly display their desperation and greed.
If I were a bank examiner, I wouldn't even need to look at their loan files, balance sheet or income statement - I'd just drive by their front door and issue a CAMELS rating from that.
There's that whole " go out after dark thing somewhere where there are lights problem".
(I'm quoting some talking head on CNBC) Greenspan used to use underwear sales as an economic indicator, as people who will generally make sure they look decent externally but no one really notices when you put on a pair of holey underwear.
This is happening in Las Vegas too. I noticed it a few weeks ago.
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