New Economic Barometer - Men's Underwear Sales

In all seriousness, a story on the Huffington Post identifies another way in which to confirm that we are currently in the midst of truly bad economic times. It seems that when times get really tough financially even men's underwear sales - which tend to be pretty recession proof - take a hit. Low and behold, it's really bad out there and underwear sales are flat and falling! Come to think of it, I haven't bought any new ones myself, what with the down real estate market and the ex-wife watching every cent I spend until I fully pay her off. I wonder if any of the surveys cited in the story singled out gay men - if so, and sales are significantly down, then we know the bad news is even worse than expected. Here are some highlights from the story:

*

As chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan was known for using quirky, proletariat metrics to judge the temperature of the economy. The most famous of these, as recounted by NPR's Robert Krulwich in January 2008, were the sales of men's underwear.

*

"If you look at sales of male underpants it's just pretty much a flat line, it hardly ever changes," Krulwich recounted after the publishing of Greenspan's book, "The Age Of Turbulence." "But on those few occasions where it dips that means that men are so pinched that they are deciding not to replace underpants. And [Greenspan] said 'that is almost always a prescient, forward impression that here comes trouble.'" Well, here comes trouble.

*

A revised survey by the leading global research company, Mintel, shows relatively large drops in the sales of men's underwear in the United States. . . . . "Men's basic apparel products probably have the least fluctuating sales of all [apparel products]," Matt Hall, a spokesman for Hanesbrands Inc. said in a brief interview. . . . . If you see a dip in the market it is because of the economy.

*

all the garments in the household, the garment that is most private is the male underpant, because nobody sees it except people in the locker room, but who cares," Krulwich told NPR. "Your children need clothes, your wife needs clothes that have to change, your children grow, you need clothes on the outside. But the last purchase that you don't have to make is underpants.... [men wear them until they are in] total tatters."