• Bedbugs are infesting New York City schools at triple the rate of last winter.
• Cholera arrived in NYC from the Dominican Republic. Researchers warn that the “cholera bacterium has undergone mutations resulting in longer outbreaks and more fatalities.”
• According to the Centers for Disease Control, the deadly superbug "C-Diff" is spreading. CDC says C-Diff is now killing thousands of people every year, and the number is growing.
• USA Today uncovered "a national epidemic in mental illness." The article speculated that financial trouble has led to the spike.
• A New York Times headline read, “Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen.”

An April 2009 study by the Socionomics Institute showed that throughout history, illnesses and epidemics tend to increase in frequency and intensity when the markets and the economy decline. Researcher Alan Hall, who studied thousands of years of data about trade, the economy, epidemics and pandemics in multiple cultures, said, "The data show that fearful people are more susceptible to epidemics."

Hall predicted that the current market uncertainty would lead to an increase in health problems. In the section titled, “Stress Affects Psychology and Physiology,” Hall wrote,

A spiraling decline in social mood stacks minor stressors -- such as subprime defaults and falling stock prices -- atop bigger stressors, such as job losses and falling house prices. This enables future stressors -- crowding, homelessness, family violence and depression -- all of which increase the risk of epidemic disease.

Put the predictive power of socionomics to work on your own behalf: The Socionomist, the Socionomics Institute's monthly publication, prepares you for important social changes most people never see coming.

The latest issue presents new research on social media and the markets, which in turn confirms a cornerstone premise of socionomics -- that changes in social mood precede shifts in the stock market. Plus, it gives you a colorful socionomic perspective on 1) animation 2) politics 3) protests in the Middle East 4) television programming 5) Mexico's Drug Wars and more. It can be on your screen in minutes, risk-free. Learn more about The Socionomist>>