Yesterday Bloomberg's Caroline Baum wrote a column on the yield curve, which she claims is the best economic indicator available. Or at least that's what I think she said; although she took great care to explain it, my brain goes into automatic lockdown once anything more complicated than division is discussed. I appealed to the wise folk of the Internet to help sort it out for me, ideally using phrases like, "Let's say you have two apples," or "The yield curve is like a bowl of fruit." Reuters' Felix Salmon kindly obliged, going so far as to use those examples. It started to make sense! Then Awl pal Jasmine put it in terms that were even more understandable to me: terms that included "blow jobs." READ MORE