Canary in the coal mine

Risk management - economic indicators.

Information that helps to identify potential problems at an appropriately early stage.

Especially key information about potential future downturns in economic activity in a particular sector - or more broadly - before adverse effects have been detected elsewhere.

From the past practice of using caged canaries to detect poisonous gases in mines.

The birds would fall sick or die before the human miners, giving the miners a signal to leave the mine immediately if at all possible.

Musk's warning could be auto industry's 'canary in the coal mine' moment

"CEO Elon Musk's 'super bad feeling' about the economy could be the auto industry's 'canary in the coal mine' moment, signaling a recession for an industry whose bosses have shown no signs of concern.

Musk said the electric carmaker needed to cut about 10% of its workforce in an email to executives seen by Reuters....

Musk's warning is the first loud and public dissent in a united stance by the auto industry that underlying demand for cars and trucks remains strong despite two years of global pandemic. One executive this week called demand 'sky high.'

'Tesla's not your average canary in the coal mine. It's more like a whale in the lithium mine,' Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in a research note, referring to the metal used in EV batteries."

Reuters - 3 June 2022.

See also

• CEO
• Early warning indicator (EWI)
• EV
• Key risk indicator (KRI)
• Liquidity risk
• Recession
• Risk management
• Stress
• Whale

External link

• Musk's warning could be auto industry's 'canary in the coal mine' moment - Reuters - June 2022