Economists are always looking for data which reveal something about the underlying health of the economy. Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, believed that sales of men's underpants (the Men's Underwear Index) reveal something about an economy's health. The basic idea is that during difficult economic times, men delay purchase of replacement underpants and make their existing undepants last longer! Click here and here to read more.
Michael Aldous and I had our book The CEO: The Rise and Fall of Britain's Captains of Industry published a few weeks ago. You can find out more about it and buy it at Cambridge University Press's website . It is also available at Amazon , Waterstones , and Barnes & Noble . The CEO has already been reviewed in The Sunday Times , The Observer and Financial Times .