Zeitgeist analysis, 7 June 2009

This week's word cloud moves are slow at first glance, but there's some interesting detail buried in the list.

The major movers near the top are financial, up 7 to 7, and rate, up 22 to 8. Related jumps are bank and banks, up 12 and 23, and more impressively banking, up 328 to 63. Capital is up 51 but money only rises 1. I'm not sure what kind of rate has been discussed so much, as inflation and interest are both down, so I guess it must be about the growth rate, up 42 to 20.

Some large moves also for: investment (up 72), GM (up 112), power (up 109), China, production and reserve, all up at least 120. Unemployment is up 100 but employment up 348, decline and recession both rise substantially but as mentioned, so does growth.

Even bigger jumps for reform (up 568), act (up 308), survey (up 511), economists (up 256), climate (up 273), losses (up 226) and Congress (up 239). First new entry is figure at 300 followed quickly by nuclear at 320.

No major patterns are emerging this week, but a few things to note. Companies and people: GM, Chrysler and Google are the only companies in the list this week - the first two for obvious reasons and the latter because of gossip about a potential antitrust case. Obama and Bernanke are the only two people in the list, with Geithner missing for the second week in a row. Maybe he's on holiday.

Oddly enough there are lots of job titles this week: secretary, models, students, officials, chairman, professor, and bear. Women at 678 are ahead of men at 757 (but human beats both at 455). And to the usual collection of place names (US still at the top, with China in the top 100 for the first time) we can add new entries Israel and Chicago.

Taxes, housing and mortgages have all fallen precipitously; while equity and savings are both up.

Next week some longer-term trends. Some things that are hard to distinguish week-to-week can show up more powerfully if you look across a few months. Look forward to seeing you then.

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