Wednesday Again? Great!

It’s that delectable time again: Let’s take another peek at the ‘Steak House Index’! Yum! Yum!

This week the SHI improved slightly – up to a reading of negative 5.  A somewhat neutral – if not slightly bearish – index reading reflecting the fact that quite a few later, more flavorsome, time slots are available this Saturday.  Here are all the SHI readings since we began this tasty experiment:

Interesting right?  So is our plan working?  Well, remember the quote from The Economist when commenting on their Big Mac Index: “Burgernomics was never intended as a precise gauge of currency misalignment, merely a tool to make exchange-rate theory more digestible.” Right.

Similarly, ‘steak-o-nomics’ has a similar goal:  To be a tool measuring current consumer/consumptive behavior ahead of other available indicators, thereby offering us a zestful and predictive general economic health metric.  Before others may have the same information.  We want to be first.  And for that purpose, it’s still too early in the meal to tell.

Today, our SHI had a reading of (-5). Here’s today’s chart:

So stay tuned. We’ll keep at it until we’re full!

– Terry Liebman