The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Who Believes The Numbers Anymore?

Posted on | November 22, 2011 | 11 Comments

by Smitty

The L.A. Times:

The U.S. economy grew more slowly than previously thought in the three months ending Oct. 31, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said, revising the nation’s third-quarter gross domestic product downward to growth of 2% from its previous estimate of 2.5%.

Has there been a quarter in recent memory where the GDP numbers haven’t gone down, and the unemployment numbers gone up in recent memory?

It seems that there is an automatic .5-1% bias in whichever direction helps the Administration. It’s as though the margin for error is always favorable for the Ruling Class Overlords, even though the revisions should have some normal distribution. Haven’t got sufficiently irritated yet to see if the the figures and revisions are all available publicly somewhere.

We need to communicate to our elected officials that we are going to support and reward an honest, clear depiction of exactly how screwed we are. Conversely, they need to know that (a) we’re on to the shenanigans, (b) the jig is up, and (c) they shall be thumped in the court of public opinion for this nonsense.

Any candidate who seems like they will Merely Institutionalize The Tendency toward the silliness Might Instead Try Telling the truth in a more blunt, less polished and focus-group-tested way.

Update: linked by Don Surber, who adds more, and Katy Pundit’s roundup.

Update II: linked by Daily Pundit, answering my URL question.

Category: Economics

Comments

11 Responses to “Who Believes The Numbers Anymore?”

  1. Joe
    November 22nd, 2011 @ 11:33 am

    Unfortunately, I believe the numbers when it comes to Jon Corzine stealing more than a billion dollars. 

    Why isn’t he arrested yet? 

  2. richard mcenroe
    November 22nd, 2011 @ 11:48 am

    DOJ will have the indictment drawn up just in time for Obama to pardon him.

  3. Anonymous
    November 22nd, 2011 @ 11:49 am

    The negative revisions aren’t even “unexpectedly” any more.

  4. Joe
    November 22nd, 2011 @ 12:00 pm

    Just being a tax paying citizen in this country is making me feel like one of these victims.

  5. Anonymous
    November 22nd, 2011 @ 12:40 pm

    “As short a time ago as February, the Ministry of Plenty had issued a promise (a ‘categorical pledge’ were the official words) that there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grams to twenty at the end of the present week. All that was needed was to substitute for the original promise a warning that it would probably be necessary to reduce the ration at some time in April.”

  6. Adjoran
    November 22nd, 2011 @ 1:01 pm

    But wasn’t Bush one of the “Ruling Class Overlords” too?  Sorry, I have trouble keeping all the conspiracy stuff straight, half the time I can’t tell a Bildeberger from a Trilateralist and which were on the Grassy Knoll.

    In the Bush years, the reports and revisions followed a more or less random pattern.  They were nearly always slightly off, but it was unpredictable as to whether the revisions would help or hurt Bush politically.

    It seems to me it has only been after Obama was in office a few months that “unexpectedly!” became such a huge joke and the revisions have invariably been negative.  Under the theory that more people read or hear about the false charge and far fewer ever see the correction, one would suppose this practice would slightly inflate Obama’s poll numbers.

    And yet . . .

  7. Anonymous
    November 22nd, 2011 @ 1:22 pm

    It wasn’t the bloggers or even the media who kept inserting the “unexpectedly” into economic news but the genius prognosticators.

  8. Anonymous
    November 22nd, 2011 @ 2:54 pm

    I don’t know if it was the news or the government who did it first, but they’ve had the trade mastered for some time: produce the lie on page one; provide the correction much later – if at all – in fine print in Section D13. The lie travels ’round the globe before the correction gets out of bed.

    And that is the point.

  9. Growth estimate trimmed « Don Surber
    November 22nd, 2011 @ 5:10 pm

    […] (From Smitty: “Who Believes The Numbers Anymore?“) […]

  10. Top Links 11/22/11 Newt Gingrich, Jimmy Fallon, Michele Bachmann, Michael Moore, Glenn Beck
    November 22nd, 2011 @ 5:45 pm

    […] and called on Jimmy Fallon to fire them.Who Believes The Numbers Anymore?The L.A. Times:The U.S. economy grew more slowly than […]

  11. Bob Belvedere
    November 23rd, 2011 @ 8:23 am

    Bend over and think of England.