Librarian explains recession indicator trends from @lapubliclibrary
A man approaches a librarian and asks why various pop culture trends on his social media feed are being called recession indicators. The librarian provides a detailed explanation, connecting modern trends like specific toys and frozen pizza to historical economic theories like the Hemline Index and the Lipstick Effect, and concludes by framing these pop culture indexes as a way for people to process economic uncertainty.
Creator: @lapubliclibrary on Instagram
Transcript
Hello. Hi. Someone told me my Labooba was a recession indicator, and now I'm seeing frozen pizza, low rise jeans, flip phones, and something about makeup. Pretty much everything on my for you page is a recession indicator. Well, I'm no financial expert, but this is likely tied to older theories such as the Hemline Index, which observed that as economic times worsen, women's skirts get longer, for example, in the Great Depression of the thirties, and shorter in times of economic prosperity, like
Topics: History, Education, Psychology
450,696 views