Why listen to what the economists think of public sentiment and public confidence when we have Google? Especially when nine out of ten economists haven’t a clue and one out of ten economists is lucky? Google can see the green shoots.
There has been a sharp rise in searches for luxury goods on Google. Searches for Mercedes Benz have risen by a third since January. Gucci is up 8 per cent. Foreign holidays by 7 per cent. Searches for spa treatments are up 8 per cent. While inversely, searches for hair shirts and anything else pertaining to survival mode are way down.
To quote Richard Scase, a Kent University sociologist and expert in organisational behaviour: People can only be down for so long and many of those who have held on to their jobs are starting to realise that things are not as bad as they feared.
Incidentally, enter “green shoots†into Google.ie, and the majority of the results relate to economists pleading with us not to be optimistic.
Jim Murray – Prosperity.ie