Analysts at JPMorgan have come up with a nifty way of gauging the health of the nation - ask cabdrivers and shopkeepers how business is going.
And they say recent talk of green shoots may be premature. Instead, they've titled their little report "Red Shoots".
Somehow I doubt that the "survey" is particularly thorough, but it still makes for interesting reading.
Analyst Harm Meijer says taxi drivers are saying that despite business usually being quiet at this time of year, it is now very quiet - or more of a "never seen this before" type of quiet.
Add to that, the owner of a fruit market stall tells Meijer that business has not been as bad for the past 30 years.
"And then, if you go to Westfield shopping centre, parking is now free for two hours," Meijer says.
"It was quite busy, but the non-food stores were (still) not (overly) excited about trading. Red shoots."
Aside from their little doorstop survey, JPMorgan has also released a more thorough report on the listed property sector called Shaky Foundations. And the broker now believes the sector is expensive.
"We reiterate our view that share prices have significantly diverted from fundamentals," Meijer says.
"We don't believe that the recent rally is sustainable, but we remain wary that a very strong cocktail of drivers is brewing that we believe is heavily underestimated by the market and could result in (temporary) upside surprises.
"We continue to believe that stocks should fall back, but we see a high risk that they could remain detached from fundamentals for a while and, again, longer than many people currently expect."
