Friday, October 08, 2010

We Misstated, Overestimated, Seasonally Adjusted

...and the numbers still suck!

Read this item critically and see how many times you shake your head in awe:

Jobs Down Still More. Now at 9.6% Unemployment

You should stumble right there in the first line with this:




The U.S. economy unexpectedly shed jobs in September
Who didn't expect that? Taxes poised to rise, indecision about health care, promises of strangling regulation and a President very visibly floundering? 


A total of 77,000 temporary jobs for the decennial census were terminated last month.
Hint: those aren't now and never were real "jobs". They produce nothing and suck at the economy. Bean counting bureaucrats do something that is mandated by the Constitution but they aren't real jobs. Memo to self: Suggest to Nancy Pelosi that she legislate to extend the census into a continuous and never-ending counting process.

The government revised data for July and August to show 15,000 more jobs lost that previously reported.  
You mean they lied to us? Even worse, that means they lied to Joe Biden leading him to announce the recovery was robust and the recession over. How evil!

It also said its preliminary benchmark revision estimate indicated employment in the 12 months to March had been overstated by 366,000. 
What? The lying apparently is endemic. Maybe that's too harsh. Maybe they aren't dishonest, only seriously incompetent. I'm not sure which is worse.

There is plenty more to choke on in that report. The outlook is bleak and possibly this news could convince the ignorati to start acting rather than hoping and change us back.

UPDATE: Low Balling Disclosed by Gallup
That's right folks. The government apparently is cooking the books to make the bad look not quite so bad as we approach election day. Who would have thunk it?

1 comment:

an Donalbane said...

When I used to work in Economic Development, we had an ED (interesting acronym) Director who, in reports to the media or the city council, would nearly always cite "...plus the multiplier effect".

The multiplier effect, of course, didn't refer to the Leatherman tool, but to the intended bridge between what could be logically explained with sound financial principles, and that which was hoped for.

In theory, it exists. But, more often than not, it's in the mind of the person using the term.

Twain was right when he said "There's lies, damned lies, and statistics!"