Odd Indicators
04/13/2012 | | Economic Activity, Economic indicators, economic prosperity, measures of economic health
The Friday File: Economists use many indicators to estimate economic activity. Here are some of the oddest. Times are bad when; there is a spike in the reselling of cemetery plots, when the number of NFL games that are not blacked-out rises (because games are not sold out), when advertisements for the Marines highlight toughness, and when restaurants hire very attractive waitresses because modeling, hosting and marketing jobs are not elsewhere available.