The Huffington Post on Wednesday posted an article that makes the discomfiting observation that if Alan Greenspan was correct when he said one barometer of a heathly economy is the consistency of men’s underwear sales, we are apparently in a world of shit.

Or tire tracks screeching to a halt, if you prefer. Sam Stein penned the light-hearted piece, which tells the story of the former Fed Chairman’s offhand remark to NPR’s Robert Krulwich in 2008, who said that Greenspan told him that if underwear sales dipped even a little, it was a sign of hard times to come.

Well, according to global research company Mintel, there is expected to be a 2.3 percent drop in sales of all men’s underwear products in 2009. This after the same firm projecterd a 2.6 increase in sales as recently as November of last year!

All I can say that as a man who really needs to wear underwear – if you know what I mean – I have actually cut back on my own expenditures in this sartorial department. The old pairs are losing their mojo as quickly as ever; I simply am not replacing them. This is a result not only of the fact that I am bone broke, but also my newfound need to be free, to let it… all… hang… out. In fact, the photo of me to the left may be the very last of me wearing little yellow undies.