Well not really, but a lot more people are interested/worrying about a recession now. According to Google Trends, in 2008, there has been a sudden spike in the number of people who searched “recession” on Google. Assuming that people who search the word “recession” are more or less concerned about the economy, they will be more likely to save rather than spend. Its not too far a jump to conclude that there are now a whole lot more people who are cutting personal spending, thereby slowing the U.S. economy…
Another useful thing about Google Trends is that it shows where the searches have originated from. In this case, the number of searches from Singapore are almost double of that from the U.S. Thats alarming because thats a very high proportion of people in Singapore that are rather worried about the economy. Unfortunately there are no numbers so you can’t find it as a percentage of the population but to put it in perspective, the U.S. has 300 million people. Singapore has 4 million. Thankfully Singapore’s a lot more dependent on exports than the U.S. but I wouldn’t want to be the one trying to calm everybody down…
