the global economy seems to be at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Goldman Sachs' reported quarterly profit of US$3.19 billion is unimaginable a year ago. across the Atlantic, British exports are growing at their fastest pace since January 2008. notably, China's club of the rich and the famous is celebrating a membership of 130 billionaires. elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong has just sold the world's most expensive apartment at US$57 million, and Vietnam's VN Index closed at 609 today, passing the psychological mark of 600 for the first time in 19 months.

actually, such figures are not the only way to appreciate the ongoing macroeconomic changes. for one, the men's underwear index (MUI) is a pretty good gauge of the state of the economy: sales of men's underwear tends to be strong when the economy is doing well and, as expenditure on men's underwear is more discretionary than women's lingerie, such expenditure would be first to forgo during a downturn. on a personal note, I do think the MUI is valid, at least to a larger extent than the hot waitress index. and by the way, Alan Greenspan follows it too. the beauty of economics.

despite the fact that the world's gentlemen are probably doing better underneath it all, the bad time may yet to be over. although Singapore is probably the first Asian country to be out of recession, Lee Kuan Yew still repeatedly cautions that this might not be a V-shaped recovery. in fact, Singapore is continuing its Job Credit scheme to help sustain the moderate upturn. and to Paul Krugman, it's "mission not accomplished" for the U.S. as unemployment should average 9.8% in 2010, resulting in an "output gap" of US$2 trillion. that's the annual GDP of the U.K., the world's 7th largest economy, forgone a year.

yet another, even starker, way to assess the state of the world is to look on the other, often neglected, side of the poor and the hungry. coincidentally, today's the World Food Day, marking the establishment of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. but I doubt there is much cause for celebration: the world's chronically hungry population will exceed 1 billion this year, an increase of almost 90 million from 2008. certainly the ongoing economic crisis should shoulder part of the blame, for the number had steadily decreased since the 1970s. no wonder the 2009 World Food Day theme is "Achieving food security in times of crisis."

now we can further share the populist sentiments against Goldman Sachs' US$16,700,000,000 executive bonuses to be paid out in 2010. mere sum for the U.S.' largest investment bank? that translates to more than half a million on average for each of the bank's 31,700 employees. yes, the Dow passed the 10,000 mark this week. but the first time it did so, back in 1999, America's unemployment rate was 4.2%, not 1 in 10 as at the moment.

and as China's billionaire club is expected to surpass the U.S.' within just 4 years from now, it is unacceptable that 1 billion of us are, not hungry, but chronically hungry. admittedly, there have been commendable exceptions to the trend, such as Kuwait, Mexico and Vietnam. but if China, with all the resources and political support, takes 10 years to bring 58 million people out of chronic hunger, that would be almost 200 years to achieve the UN millenium goal to end poverty and hunger. not to mention that the worst affected regions, according to the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2009, are in sub-Saharan Africa, which cannot match China's effort in any sunstantive way.

so yeah, should the MUI or the GHI reflect the fortune of the world? you decide.