How to Know If the Economy is Improving
 
 
Before you read: some questions to help you think about the topic and the words you might need.
Do you trust everything about what experts say about the economy?
Where do you learn about the economy?
 
Some economic tools such as using astrologers are notoriously bad at telling us how the economy will be, but some fun ones such as the McDonald’s Big Mac price index seem to be accurate.
 
One sign that came from the Wharton Business School is to look at the length of girls’ dresses. The more conservative girls look, then this is a sign of hard economic times ahead, the more free and liberal then this means good economic times ahead.
Women make the decisions about what to buy and really manage the day to day finances of the household. Women are more practical than men in many ways. This might be because of their need to make a home safe for children. This is a deep instinctual knowing, programmed into them for millions of years.  Therefore, it might be reasonable to trust in their ability to predict the economy on a subconscious level.
 
So, what is a reliable economic sign? Well, my brother once asked me “how are people doing where you live, are they spending money, do they feel confident?” This can make sense, because sometimes we get too much information from all the different and opposite business news. So turning off the news and tuning out the experts might be a good idea. Take a look around you, and ask yourself, how does it look? Are people buying unnecessary items or are they buying basic stuff.  And related to the above, are girls wearing nice items or cheap cosmetics.  Look more at what people are buying than just some simple sales data etc. What is their dress length?
Look at what types of purchases people are making, including yourself.  Also, are the shopping mall parking lots full?  I have heard many Americans say ‘its so bad here’, while I asked them what they did this weekend, they said ‘shopping, it was exhausting because the parking lots were full.’
Real hardship was WWII (World War 2) or the great depression, not media created hype. We can look and watch rather than listen to other people’s opinions.  We can use our own brains and eyes to make a decision about where the economy is headed. Experts and news are often wrong. Your own eyes could be the best economic indicator. So perhaps look at the length of women’s dress lengths and tell me what you think.
 
Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning. The answers are below the table. 
  

notoriously  A 1 How people/animals react based on genetics or without thinking, actions made automatically
day to day  B 2 Famous for being bad
instinctual knowing C 3 Stop looking and stop listening
a subconscious level D 4 difficulty
tuning out  E 5 The direction where business and spending is going
hardship  F 6 Repeated information that makes us think some way 
hype G 7 Your thoughts at a deeper part that you don’t control
where the economy is headed H 8 everyday

 A=2, B=8, C=1, D=7, E=3, F=4, G=6, H=5      Some example sentences using the new words to help you to better understand their meaning.
1.     Cats are notorious for stealing garbage, and stealing food garbage is their instinct. And cats have an instinctual knowing about danger.
2.     Day to day life in Seoul is busy.
3.     At a subconscious level women like men with a good job because they can provide for them.
4.     The students tuned out of the lecture because the speaker was boring.
5.     Many parents can’t afford to send their children to private schools because of financial hardship.
6.     There is a lot of hype about the new movie, so moviegoers expect it to be very good.
7.     In America, house prices are heading up, so it looks like the economy is also heading up.
 
 
 
Some discussion questions using the new words to help you better understand the word meaning and how to use them correctly. Try to use the words in your answer.
 
 
1.     Why would using astrologers and other fortune tellers be notoriously bad at telling us about the economic future?
2.     In your country, do women make the day to day household decisions about spending money? Why?
3.     Describe an instinctual knowing of a person or an animal?
4.     What do you think is the difference between “instinctual knowing” and “subconscious level”? Why should we trust women’s ability to know about the economy on a subconscious level rather than a conscious one?
5.     Who are some other people we could or should tune out? For example, I like to tune out negative and complaining people because they make me feel depressed.
6.     Why do you think that media created hype to make us think we have economic hardship? Do you agree with the statements about media created hype making us think we have economic hardship?
7.     How could you use your eyes and brains to decide where the economy is heading? How much do you trust economic experts?