The new leading economic indicator...

I have spent the past few days out in Denver and have been enjoying the snow. Yes, snow. Yesterday, it was 70 and sunny. Today, it snowed. I look forward to posting my "list" of new favorite Denver places on CityVoter.com soon. I hit some good spots thanks to our CityVoter iPhone app.

Today, while it snowed outside, I had the pleasure of attending Liberty Media's CEO Netleaders conference. They've held this event four years in a row now, and it's a chance for people who run companies in the digital space to get together and compare notes. This event focused a lot on innovation. The advice...make sure your internet company has a differentiated product and service. It also focused a lot on the economy. We heard from a leading Wall Street analyst, and he provided a lot of data. In addition, CEOs were asked to provide their take on where we are in the recovery of the economy. While everyone could point to online traffic, CPMs, and smart phone adoption as reasons to be conservatively bullish on the economy, the comment that had everyone talking was about wine. One of the entrepreneurs on a panel mentioned his restaurant is seeing an up tick in the number of expensive bottles of wine being purchased with dinner. While he said the number of people dining fluctuates a little, the amount people spend on wine only really increases when confidence increases. So, for all the Wall Street data and research, I offer you this. Wine is the new leading indicator of the economy's recovery. Buy buy buy.