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.
According to Robert Shiller , speaking at Davos, Bitcoin is a perfect example of a bubble - story here . Shiller sees Bitcoin as a backwards step in the evolution of money. George Selgin , a free banker, takes an opposing view - click here . Although he doesn't believe that Bitcoin is money, he sees its development as a fascinating turn in the evolution of money. In particular, he lauds the fact that Bitcoin production is constrained and cannot be infinite. There is a short video below where Bitcoin explain how it works.