Why does White Paint matter to the economy?
Titanium Dioxide is what makes paint white. Since white paint is used to paint everything from railroad cars drilling rigs, to fleet vehicles to walls to hospitals, it is a good indicator of the broader conditions of the economy.
Here are two excerpts that caught my eye this morning:
Globe and Mail: Why economists are watching the paint dry
Fortune tellers read tea leaves. Astrologers read stars. And economists searching for signs of the recession’s end are reading … white paint.
More specifically, they’re tracking the price of titanium dioxide, the substance that makes paint white. Titanium dioxide might not be a household name, and economists of course eye more widely watched indicators.
But white paint is seen by many as an economic barometer, given its widespread use in everything from house paints, cars and washing machines to railway cars, skyscrapers and airplanes.
If the price of titanium dioxide is doing well, the explanation goes, more white paint is selling, suggesting a pickup in economic activity.
And, as an article in Calgary Herald mentions, white is the preferred car colour choice when entering a recession because it’s often the cheapest colour available. See: What your car colour reveals about you.:
The range of colours of which people are aware is important, according to Weil, because all societies assign certain values to colours.
Some colours are indicators that a person is doing well,” says Weil. “Silver, for example, has been associated with high status, especially during the post-Sept. 11 economic boom. The popularity of silver began to wane, though, about two years ago.”
Silver ranked as the top colour in the DuPont Global Automotive Color Popularity Reports from 2000 to 2006 — a seven-year reign. The switch to white as the top colour coincides with Weil’s — and many economists’ — estimates of the beginning of the current economic recession.
“White is associated with transition,” Weil says. “But it’s interesting that much of the switch was to whites with special effects, such as pearl.” So, even though people shifted to white, he says, it was to a more luxurious and durable-looking white rather than the plain white they remembered as appearing bland and institutional.
