Economic Depression: Obama team now uses Google Trends to track the economy

The White House is now making assessments on the state of the US economy using Google Trends, at least according to President Obama’s top economic advisor Larry Summers.

During an interview and subsequent speech this week Summers cited a decline in Google searches for “economic depression” as a sign that the US economy is on the mend (and we promise we’re not making this up.)

“You look at how frequently people are talking about depression. (Compare) six months ago vs. now, it’s not a term you hear anymore,” Summers said. “I reject the view that the stimulus bill has not worked.”

“Take one example as an indicator: Google searches for the term “economic depression” were up fourfold from their pre-crisis levels…Now…such hits have returned to normal levels.”

Notably Google searches for “economic depression” have surged over the last 24 hours, with the term appearing in the top 10 searches made by users on Google in the United States.