Economists are increasingly interested in the way we feel. Surveys that follow business and consumer confidence are closely watched.
One such indicator is the number searches for ‘recession’ on Google.
“Leading up to the global financial crisis, the global economy was doing pretty well,” says Alexis Gray, Economist at Vanguard Europe.
Then you have this big financial crisis, and anxiety levels go up. People Google the word 'recession', and since then, that number of 'recession' searches has been more elevated than pre-crisis.”
“I definitely think there's a relationship between heightened level of anxiety and low confidence. And that may be part of the reason why people voted for Brexit, because, in many ways the Leave vote was a vote for 'I'm unhappy with the way that things are'.”
“I think what's happened with Brexit and with Donald Trump. There are similar flavours going on there….”
For more, please see the full video above, or visit the Vanguard website.
