Economic Recovery Made Evident by Lingerie Sales

Remember the briefcase indicator in the 90s? CNBC cameras would follow then-Fed chairman Alan Greenspan on his way to Federal Open Market Committee meetings and speculate on the state of the economy based on how his briefcase looked. As Greenspan recounts in Age of Turbulence:

If my briefcase was thin, the theory went, then my mind was untroubled and economy was well. But if it was stuffed full, it meant I’d been burning the midnight oil and a rate hike loomed. (For the record, the briefcase indicator was not accurate. The fatness of my briefcase was solely a function of whether I’d packed my lunch.)

Once you get over the shock of discovering we must all be — at the very least — in our thirties in this here newsroom, we invite you to delight in a bit of good news. CNBC is still at it!

Of course now, instead of a briefcase indicator (clever, but not sexy enough), we have the Lingerie Index. The theory goes like this: if the economy is suffering, the first thing to go is the self-spoiling. If we start to do better, we’ll immediately splurge on ourselves.

Jane Wells, live from Woodland Hills on The Kudlow Report, explains: “The National Retail Federation report that 57 percent of shoppers are buying something for themselves this holiday; that’s up from 53 percent last year. Women, when they start splurging, they tend to buy lingerie first.”

Hence, the Lingerie Index. Get it? Okay, well — BMO Capital Markets did an experiement where they gave shoppers $100 gift cards just to monitor their spending. According to Wells 52 percent of them hit up a Victoria’s Secret to buy something for themselves! See the trend?! The economy: it gets better!

Guess they’re not taking into account these women may be buying these items for their new jobs at gentlemen’s clubs now that the economy has done off with their careers. Thanks CNBC, keep on keeping it real!