Zeitgeist analysis, 10 May 2009

Alert followers of the economics zeitgeist will not be surprised to see the big moves today: bank up 7 and banks up 20 to positions 3 and 4, top moves of the week by far.

Related moves: capital up 31 to 18, billion up 53 to 17, need up 13 to 32, and roaring up the charts: stress up 745 to 63 and test up 626 places to 131! Top new entry is tests at 232.

Also linked: interest, rate and credit all rising substantially, as are losses, Fed and Treasury.

Other words in the news: job, employment and unemployment all jumping up the list, with manufacturing perhaps surprisingly up 600 places (and retail up 53 with services down over a hundred).

And some of the largest falls: market, markets and global are all down, as is down itself. Days is down 248 (but months is up 48 places at 68, which is a significant rise). Bankruptcy and court are both down, which sounds like a good thing.

Green shoots watch: recession up 62 places but recovery up 279. Negative is up 244 but positive up 297. Green is down 191 and shoots does not appear at all. Growth is up 9 to 44 and depression down 434 places to 889. Demand has fallen but spending is up...a mini-paradox for you.

There are some definite curiosities in this week's data: inference is the second highest new entry at 338, bit is up 400 places and the letter u has shown up for some reason. These, along with the x and = entries which are also highly placed, mostly come from a huge (econo)physics article on Don the Libertarian Democrat's blog.

Many people will be pleased to see taxes falling along with property, and others may be concerned that oil, climate and energy are dropping off the agenda.

Countries, companies and people: US and China have both fallen; Japan is on the list and the UK is off it for once; Europe makes it but no other country does. Despite no mention of North Korea or Pakistan, nuclear is on the list. People are not very exciting either: Obama, Geithner and Bernanke are the only people identifiable, and none are surging. GM and Chrysler are both falling; Morgan makes it onto the list but neither JP nor Stanley accompanies it; similarly Wells but not Fargo; Citigroup doesn't make it either. Unless you count the Federal Reserve and ECB, companies are obviously not of interest this week.

But Kindle has popped onto the list for the first time! Someone's PR is evidently working.