CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Telegraph UK, Financial Times, New York Times, and of course investment blogs have all been talking about green shoots lately. It’s a mysterious term that emerged from the bowels of the media and has gained traction like a cat chasing a ghost on some carpet. So what is it? Well, steel production is a green shoot, housing starts is a green shoot, consumer spending is a green shoot.
Huh? Come again? That’s what I started thinking when the term first showed up in my news feeds, and I’m supposed to know these things! Well after enough headlines I started to figure it out, but since the term is still new to everyone I wanted to track down where it came from. First though, what is a green shoot?
Summer just started, which means spring just ended. What happens in spring? Grass grows, and green becomes the dominant color of the outdoors. The greenery is growing up, reaching towards the sky. Some might go so far as to say it’s shooting up. It’s a rebirth after the dismal, cold, and colorless winter. Life has returned.
With each new blade of grass things start to look and feel better. What would make you feel better about the economy though? Perhaps better than expected unemployment reports? Green shoot. Bottoming out of home prices – green shoot. Deflation concerns eased – green shoot. Every bit of good news that clues us into economic recovery is a new blade of grass. Green shoots are any sign of economic growth or recovery. Generally speaking, they are associated with a certain piece of news on the day. For example.
Who is responsible for this term? Norman Lamont, Chancellor of the Exchequer of the UK back in 1991. That sounds like a crazy word to US Americans but it’s basically Britain’s Timothy Geithner. In January of 2009 another British politician uttered the words; but in March it was the good Fed Chief Ben Bernanke who brought the term to America. Like smallpox, alcohol, and racial inequity, once on these shores it became popular very fast. Our faithful media has been responsible for popularizing the term since then.
So if you hear of green shoots you now know that the media is probably referring to some kind of economic news that points to recovery. It’s now only a matter of time until we start seeing headlines like “Was Obama’s Stimulus Package Fertilizer For The Green Shoots?” or “New Regulations Like Taking A John Deer To The Green Shoots”. Uh-oh, I think I just started it.
Photo: korephotos
 By The Weakonomist |
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