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December 6, 2009
Cost of French hens up, cost of a partridge in a pear tree down
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me. uh. FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!
I once knew this song by heart, really I did. And I once calculated exactly what the singer receives from his/her true love in total, all twelve days of Christmas (364 gifts).
What I did not do, was calculate how much all of this would cost with today's prices and then compare that to the cost of twelve days of Christmas over the past 25 years and then come up with the Christmas Price Index. But PNC Wealth Management did.
Norwegian online newspaper Nettavisen (which translates to "The Online Newspaper") had a great article about this, taking it very seriously and interviewing a professor in marketing about whether this could really tell us anything about the economy.
The cost of both golden rings and French hens are up 43 percent, while geese a-laying and a partridge in a pear tree are both less expensive this year compared to last Christmas.
Tor Wallin Andreassen from the Norwegian School of Management says that demand for luxury goods (like imported hens and gold) might be up because we're comforting ourselves - and our true loves - in difficult times. Meanwhile, we buy fewer geese.
The price of ladies dancing is confusing to him though:
"Given the unemployment rate today - especially in the USA - I doubt that the price of nine ladies dancing has really gone up," says Andreassen.
More Christmas music according to Julie
Posted by Julie at December 6, 2009 9:18 PM
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