Don't get your knickers in a twist

You need to take a closer look at the ladies; in fact, at the lengths of their skirts and dresses. If short skirts are all the rage, you should be happy - and not only for aesthetic reasons. This means that there is going to be a bull marketon the stock exchanges. It is factors such as these that are used to calculate theHemline Index. Devised in 1926, it is based on the theory that the length of women's clothes is correlated to the movement of share prices. So if you don't want to upset the indexes, you should pack a few very short dresses for your trip to the French Riviera. This brings us nicely onto another major topic, er, intimately connected with the property market... underpants. Polish business journal 'Puls Biznesu' has recently reminded us that Alan Greenspan once came up with the Men's Underwear Index, according to which the sellers of men's briefs are the first to notice the signs of a market revival. The idea is that when the economy is finally out of the woods, gentlemen