Every year around this time, we get treated to the PNC Advisors 12 Days of Christmas Price Index.
Perhaps I’m just a Grinch, but has this media ploy gotten really pointless and tired?
There’s little in the way with real world correlation, and no explanation for the price of various item — i.e., are the milkmaids the equivalent of unskilled labor, while the Lords-a-leaping are high end labor that cannot be outsourced to New Delhi?
Gold rings prices are down over 5%? Um, wrong — gold is up enormously since last X-mas, when it was $340 or so per oz. Now, its over $410 – a 33% increase.
The whole thing is just way too schmaltzy, to use a word that’s rarely associated with economics or Christmas.
Each year since 1984, PNC Advisors has provided a tongue-in-cheek economic analysis, based on the cost of the goods and services purchased by the True Love in the holiday classic, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
“We have seen a record increase in the 2003 Index, possibly indicating that the fears over deflation that we saw last year may begin to recede, as general price levels begin to pick up and the outlook returns to one suggesting the economic recovery may be sustainable,” said Kleintop
Um, is this of value to anyone else?
Source
PNC Advisors 12 Days of Christmas Price Index
http://www.pncbank.com/12days/
