How pingpong tables are an economic indicator

Kai Ryssdal May 4, 2016
HTML EMBED:
COPY
startupstockphotos

How pingpong tables are an economic indicator

Kai Ryssdal May 4, 2016
startupstockphotos
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Let’s call it the pingpong table index.

There’s been speculation here and elsewhere that we’re in a tech bubble and that as all bubbles do, it will eventually pop.

The Wall Street Journal got creativewent out to Silicon Valley and talked to a pingpong table salesmen. Pingpong tables being one of those icons often found in startups and tech companies.

Turns out that when the Nasdaq hit its lows this past February, this guy sold the fewest tables he’d sold in two years.

Yahoo, he said, hasn’t bought anything in a long while. Intel, which just laid off 12,000 people, hasn’t bought in more than a year.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.