What constitutes a green shoot?

Looking at the BBC website tonight I came across this interesting article asking what constitutes a green shoot? Every day we see in the news an array of economic information, some good, some bad. So how do we define a green shoot? The article suggests some:

The crane index. How many cranes are visible from a given point. Really a measure of optimism about the prospects for commercial property.

The Dry Baltic Index. A measure of demand for shipping. Since it takes two years to build a container ship, freight capacity is inflexible, so small changes in demand can cause marked changes in price.

The Popcorn Index. Sales of popcorn at the cinema are, it was suggested in a newspaper recently, a sensitive barometer of consumer behaviour.

So over to you to suggest some.

This could be a really good first lesson back with year 10 or 11.

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Great short video - Economy continues to grow [7 Jul 2010]
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Good news if you are going on holiday to Europe [30 Jun 2010]
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Inflation revision [26 May 2010]
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Inflation revision [18 May 2010]
Taxation revision [13 May 2010]
Great macro revision video [22 Apr 2010]
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Interest Rates and Exchange Rates - video [7 Jan 2010]
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Super Starter Sunday - Beat the Teacher - Macroeconomic objectives [3 Jan 2010]
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