prost.jpgForget the Case Shiller Index. Baltic Dry Index? Old news. Hemline analysis? Forget it. For real, serious metrics you have to think out of the box (so to speak). You have to consider the plight, for instance, of Latvian hookers. Yes we are serious. So is Bloomberg.

When the economy starts to lift itself out of this recession, what will be the leading indicator that tells us we have turned the corner?
Some people track the price of shipping to gauge the health of global trade. Others look at the supply of freshly minted money pouring out of central banks. A few will say that signs of life in the housing markets are evidence of a recovery.
Forget them all. The one lesson we can draw from the global credit crisis is that all the traditional ways of measuring the state of the economy are about as useful as a bottle of suntan lotion in a snowstorm.
So here are two benchmarks we should all be monitoring more closely: extramarital affairs and the price of Latvian hookers. Both are telling us that there is still plenty of trouble ahead.

Now that we think about it, Spitzer’s “great matter” did sort of coincide with the beginning of the end. Really, for the details you should probably go to the original article:
Latvian Hookers Signal No Recovery for Economy: Matthew Lynn [Bloomberg]

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Comments (34)

  1. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 12:07 PM

    Does anyone know if Bronte Capital provides an expense account for research?

  2. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 12:15 PM

    Is that Ruth out on the corner?

  3. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 12:18 PM

    Now that’s a leading indicator I can get behind.

  4. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 12:20 PM

    Nice Tudors reference

  5. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 12:25 PM

    How come there is no breakdown of services for the Latvian hookers?
    Maybe the data is skewed like the typical accounting data.
    How do we know the alley quickie market isn’t flourishing while the all nighter pink and stink market collapsed?

  6. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 12:34 PM

    I wonder if LVL hooker price is also down 18% like their economy
    http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/05/11/ap6403921.html

  7. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 12:35 PM

    God bless people who can think in and outside of “the box”.

  8. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 12:35 PM

    who owns the TM on Skankometer and iSuxx?

  9. Posted by american bandersnatch | May 27, 2009 at 12:56 PM

    Nice title EP. Keep up the good work.

  10. Posted by SgtJack | May 27, 2009 at 12:58 PM

    Ah yes, the Plunderer for Down Under(er?). Hempton’s days consist of raging on Bondi and Latvian prosties? Win.

  11. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 1:04 PM

    I have been proposing a salary cap for hookers for years. Otherwise, prices will get out of control much like baseball

  12. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 1:06 PM

    Too Hunts: Didn’t Point

  13. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 1:08 PM

    Give new meaning to the stimulus bill.

  14. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 1:11 PM

    Father-priest (name?): Why do you want to accept the Latvian Orthodox faith?
    George: *ahem* In this age of uncertainty and confusion, a man begins to ask himself certain questions. How can one even begin to put into words something so um… (trying to think of a word)
    Father-priest: Enigmatic?
    George: No.
    Father-priest: Vast? (he pronounces it as “vost”)
    George: No not vast (he pronounces it as “vost”)
    Father-priest: Well whatever it is, basically you like the religion.
    George: Yes.
    Father-priest 2: Is there one aspect of the faith that you find particularly
    attractive?
    George: (he thinks) I think the hats. The hats convey that solemn religious
    look you want in a faith. Very pious.
    Father-priest: Are you familiar with Orthodox theology?
    George: Well perhaps, not to the extent that you are. But I know the basic plot. Yeah.
    Father-priest: Plot?
    George: Yeah, yeah. You know the uh flood, and the uh lepers, and the
    commandments and all that.
    Father-priest 2: Well it’s obvious that you are sincere in your desire.
    George: Oh yes I am Father. Incredibly sincere. So, uh, pffft, am I in?

  15. Posted by NAS Keflavik boi | May 27, 2009 at 1:11 PM

    Latvian working girl usage data could be used to build the “Baltic Wet Index”

  16. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 1:11 PM

    Spitzer definitely top ticked. He paid top dollar despite being ninth in line.

  17. Posted by Anal_yst | May 27, 2009 at 1:26 PM
  18. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 1:46 PM

    17
    That site is so bogus. I don’t know anyone that’s hooked up from there. The committed use CL.

  19. Posted by american bandersnatch | May 27, 2009 at 1:57 PM

    @ NAS – 1st place.
    @ 14 – Honorable mention

  20. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 2:12 PM

    Eastern euro women are hot

  21. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 2:50 PM

    Six years, Michael! Six years
    I’ve absorbed this poison! Six years –
    four hundred depositions — a hundred
    motions — five changes of venue –
    eighty-four thousand documents in
    discovery!
    …Six years I’ve steered this beast,
    Michael — six years of stalling and
    screaming and scheming and…
    Look at me, Michael. Twelve percent
    of my life has been spent protecting
    the reputation of a deadly weedkiller!
    – one night, right? — I look up
    and Marty’s standing in my office
    with a bottle of champagne –
    – he tells me we’ve just hit thirty thousand billable hours on U/North
    and he wants to celebrate. An hour
    later, I’m in a whorehouse in Chelsea
    and two Lithuanian redheads are taking
    turns sucking my dick. I’m laying
    there, I’m trying not to come, I’m
    trying to make it last, right? So I
    start doing the math — thirty thousand
    hours — what is that? — twenty-four
    times thirty — seven-hundred twenty
    hours in a month — eight-thousandseven-
    hundred and sixty hours per
    year…
    Because it’s years — it’s lives –
    and the numbers are making me dizzy,
    and now, now I’m not just trying not
    to come, I’m trying not to think!
    But I can’t stop! Is that me? Am I
    just some freak organism that’s been
    put here to eat and sleep and spend
    my days defending this one horrific
    chain of carcinogenic molecules?
    Is that my destiny? Is this is my
    place?
    Is that it, Michael?
    Is that my grail? Two Lithuanian
    mouths on my cock? Is that the correct
    answer to the multiple choice of me?

  22. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 3:09 PM

    in grad school, we had a name for this real exchange measure: pppp

  23. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 3:20 PM

    @22, yep, sure beats using a Big Mac for those comparisons.

  24. Posted by EvilBuzzard | May 27, 2009 at 4:00 PM

    @21 – “Is that my grail? Two Lithuanian
    mouths on my cock? Is that the correct
    answer to the multiple choice of me?”
    If not, I’ll sure make allowances and slip you some partial credit.

  25. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 4:39 PM

    @23 Prostitute Purchasing Power Parity? What grad school is that?

  26. Posted by guest | May 27, 2009 at 5:50 PM

    @18 Yes, AM is for the rookie, better sites out there.

  27. Posted by queen_of_the_VIX | May 27, 2009 at 6:25 PM

    this isn’t really funny at all. most of these girls are sex slaves.
    Girls are approached online or in clubs with big promises of a new life abroad. Those that accept arrive only to find out they’ve been sold and are forced into prostitution for no pay. They are threatened with death if they don’t comply. And they are stuck in a country where they don’t speak the language and have no realistic means of escape
    http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/22865/
    a film everyone on this board should see that dramatizes this is called “Lilia 4-ever” though it’s about Sweden

  28. Posted by guest | May 28, 2009 at 1:49 PM

    Comment removed by moderator.

  29. Posted by queen_of_the_VIX | May 28, 2009 at 9:47 PM

    @28
    please watch the film and report back

  30. Posted by InfiniteGuest | June 9, 2009 at 10:16 AM
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