Sex workers and adult entertainers have noted that their industry frequently acts as an uncanny early warning system for economic recessions, a phenomenon informally dubbed the stripper index.

A closer look

Sex workers and adult entertainers have noted that their industry frequently acts as an uncanny early warning system for economic recessions, a phenomenon informally dubbed the stripper index. Because exotic dance clubs rely entirely on the disposable income of their clientele, any sudden decrease in cash tips or VIP room bookings usually indicates that the general public is secretly tightening their belts long before it shows up in official government data. It makes total sense that the earliest victims of a looming financial crisis are the people working in cash-in-hand luxury entertainment, providing a grim but highly accurate real-time tracker of consumer confidence. It is genuinely hilarious that Wall Street professionals could probably get a much better read on the upcoming quarterly GDP by simply asking a dancer how her Friday night shift went. Who needs a Federal Reserve interest rate hike projection when the champagne room revenue is already plummeting!