It's very noticeable as I go around how so many of the people who are wearing a colour just now are wearing red. An index of the social mood? I'd suggest red is the colour people turn to when it seems good times are turning sour – and a lot of people right now seem to think something is turning sour, though just what that something is it would be hard to say. And so people are bringing out those red coats, jackets, scarves, backpacks, you name it.
As and if things get worse, we'd expect the mood to move towards orange and then yellow, though in more sombre shades, so the yellow is likely to be realized as brown.
It's the endless cycle between the yang (active) and the yin (passive) and back again by way of the real, the imaginary and the symbolic. Green is the fairy colour, the dream colour; blue is for reason, rationalism, conservatism (ever hear of a true blue conservative?) – but conservatives proper and conservationists have a lot in common.
Does this cycle of moods drive the economy, or vice versa – or are they both driven by something else? Who knows? But people are not wearing red for no reason.