Delivering Crisis

On the eve of the Gulf War, before a single missile was fired and before the press had any inkling of the impending conflict, a highly specific local business in Washington D.C. experienced a massive, unprecedented spike in sales. Domino's Pizza franchises near the Pentagon and the White House were suddenly overwhelmed with late-night delivery orders.This phenomenon, dubbed the "Pizza Meter," is one of the most famous examples of unconventional predictive analytics. When global crises loom, government officials and military strategists work through the night in secure bunkers, triggering a massive surge in fast-food logistics. By simply monitoring the volume of late-night pizza deliveries to specific government addresses, savvy observers could accurately predict imminent military operations and geopolitical shifts long before they hit the news.This fascinating business book explores the shadow world of bizarre, secondary economic indicators. You will discover how hedge funds track corporate private jet flights to predict mergers, how the Men's Underwear Index forecasts recessions, and why the sales of lipstick always skyrocket when the economy collapses.Stop relying on delayed official reports. Learn how to identify the invisible logistical footprints left by human panic and urgency, and use unconventional data correlations to forecast market movements and global events before anyone else.