Financial expert warns of Beyoncé effect

Mon, 01/12/2009 - 12:12pm

Subprime lenders, reckless traders and lax regulators have all been blamed for the current financial mess. Then again, maybe it's all Beyoncé's fault.

According to one NYU professor, the singer's catchy new hit, Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it), may be an indicator of future economic doom:

According to findings by Phil Maymin, professor of finance and risk engineering at New York University, the more regular the beat on Billboard's top singles, the more volatile the American markets. After studying decades of Billboard's Hot 100 hits, Maymin found that songs with low "beat variance" had an inverse correlation with market turbulence. Which is to say, the more regular the song, the crazier the stock market.

And Single Ladies is very regular

I wonder what Maymin's NYU colleague Nouriel Roubini thinks of this. Personally I think that if the predictive power of pop songs were really this strong, Nickelback would have heralded a nuclear apocalypse years ago.

(Belated hat tip: Carolyn) 

Photo: Scott Gries/Getty Images

Joshua Keating | Permalink | | Comments? Login or register
( filed under: )


Advertisement

 

So much for the hillbillies

by B. Elli Cose on Mon, 01/12/2009 - 3:39pm

Right. And did you know that, within the geographic boundaries of the U.S., there's a fairly substantial (i.e., 0.5-0.6 range) negative correlation between distance from the Canadian border and scores on standardized intelligence tests? In other words, the further away from Canada you are, the dumber you tend to be. Fortunately for our Southern hillbilly friends, correlation does not necessarily imply causation--and geography is not necessarily destiny.

Well, duh...

by Riley on Mon, 01/12/2009 - 8:53pm

More regular beats on Billboard means more drum machines taking over pop music means more drummers out of work and roaming the streets. It's no wonder the market is running scared.