Word: indexable
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...millions of American consumers, the debate over Richard Nixon's anti-inflation program will be settled at the supermarket check-out counter. Regardless of what economists and politicians can show on their cost-of-living charts, the inflation index that means most to the consumer is the cost of food. President Nixon, deeply embarrassed by a spurt in the most basic price of all during a period of wage-price controls, mobilized his Phase II machine to fight the battle of the porkchop bill...
...becoming painfully clear. The Labor Department reported that in February consumer prices jumped at an annual rate of some 6%, largely because of the fattest monthly rise in grocery prices in 14 years-almost 23% at an annual rate. Since the start of Phase II, the consumer price index has risen at a rate of 4.9%, v. 4.1% in the six months before Nixon imposed the freeze last August. Moreover, Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Herbert Stein expects another bulge in meat costs next month because of shortages. After that, he says, an increasing amount of meat coming...
Take Mickey Feldstein's Foolproof Pawnshop Index. Feldstein keeps a close watch on the percentage of pawned items that are eventually redeemed at his Lincoln Loan Bank & Jewelers in Chicago. In 1966, when the economy was throbbing, Feldstein's redemption rate was 90%. In December of 1970, the Commerce Department's average of twelve leading indicators was pointing up unmistakably, signaling a big rebound in business. Feldstein knew better; his redemption rate the month before was only 60%, and the Commerce Department rebound never came. Today Feldstein sees good times ahead. His redemption rate is a brisk...
...Conference Board, a top business research group, keeps an eagle eye on employment ads in newspapers. The board's help-wanted index has risen from 75 in January 1971 to 85 last January, but is still far below 1967's base of 100. Claims for workmen's compensation are sensitive to swings in the economy, says Donald Seagraves, vice president of American Mutual Insurance Alliance. When a recession sets in, claims drop; inefficient plants-which tend to have high accident rates-are shut down, and employers are under less pressure to throw poorly trained workers...
Dawdling Dow. The market is even more vigorous than the Dow Jones average of 30 big, old industrial stocks suggests. The Dow is the market's best-watched barometer, but it is lagging well behind more representative, broader-based gauges. Standard & Poor's index of 425 industrial stocks hit a new all-time high four weeks ago. Last month the industrial component of the New York Stock Exchange's 1,047-issue index also reached a record. Yet the Dow dawdles 52 points behind its record closing of 995 posted in February...