Economy: Fed Manipulating Statistics (again)

[unlawflcombatnt]

Friday's Industrial Production "increase" of 0.2% is another example of the Federal Reserve manipulating statistics to make currently published figures appear "good" or "improved." From the Fed's own publication of Industrial Production figures taken from 10/30/06, the "Gross Value of Final Products and Nonindustrial Supplies" has been downwardly revised for every single time period shown. Every quarterly report has been revised downward. August and September's numbers have been downwardly revised. Even the total for 2005 has been downwardly revised by $36 billion, from the previously reported $2.990 trillion down to $2.954 trillion. (This would subtract approximately 0.1% from 2005's reported GDP.)

Even using only the current numbers, there has been a $15 billion net decline in Industrial Production since August. However, using the previously published number for August of $3.1301 trillion, there has been a decline of $64.4 billion to November's $3.0657 trillion. This is a decline in the annual rate of over 2% in 3 months.

(Below is a modified copy of both the Federal Reserves report from 12/15/06 on Industrial Production on the top with a copy of the Fed's report from 10-30-06 on the bottom. The changed numbers are underlined in red.)



(Friday's Fed Release can be found at Industrial Production)

Are these signs of an economy that is "strong, and getting stronger"? At best, much of this so-called "growth" has been a result of statistical manipulation, especially through the downward revision of previously published numbers.

unlawflcombatnt

Economic Populist Forum

EconomicPopulistCommentary
_________________
The economy needs balance between the "means of production" & "means of consumption."

[Charlie P]

They still counting flipping burgers in manufactoring?

[Canuck_Buck]

we eat dem faster dan dey can flip dem....

[Champlain Islander]

I like it when they give good news. Makes my portfolio go up and that gives me more to spend.

[chr103yod]

My 401k made 13.5% interest this year. Wow things are terrible.

[BenGarrett]

ORIGINAL: chr103yod

My 401k made 13.5% interest this year.Â* Wow things are terrible.

unlawfulcombatant likes to pick and choose a couple of sets of figures and use them to claim that the economy is in a rut. Fortunately for us all, things are no where near as bad as he claims; actually, to the contrary, they're quite good. I've never understood why some Americans will try to paint positives as negatives because of politics. You'd almost think they actually WISH that the economy WAS bad because it would (supposedly) reflect poorly on the president.

[Whitehorse]

The economy is not a static thing - it's changing & will always do so. It's up to the individual to make himself of greater value in the economy & respond to the changes in a positive manner.

[bawanajim]

Hey every things going great thats why all of the people that have been running things for the last four years got tossed like bad milk in the last election!
Look how much cheaper it is to drive to work now,he!!I can heat my home for dam near nothing.And I bet for all you over achievers that work two jobs just to get by are going to have a great big ham bone for Christmas dinner.
Just remember Wal- Mart loves you each and every one!

[unlawflcombatnt]

ORIGINAL: bawanajim

Hey every things going great thats why all of the people that have been running things for the last four years got tossed like bad milk in the last election!
Look how much cheaper it is to drive to work now,he!!I can heat my home for dam near nothing.And I bet for all you over achievers that work two jobs just to get by are going to have a great big ham bone for Christmas dinner.
Just remember Wal- Mart loves you each and every one!

Yes, the public likedthe previous Congressso much that they votedto give many of them a permanent vacation.

And it's easyfor the governmentto keep the unemployment rate down. Just claim 4.3 million unemployed workers are not actually looking for work, and you can remove them from the unemployment count and reduce the unemployment rate a good 3 percentage points.

Yes, indeed. Economic growth through manipulation of statistics is the new paradigm.

unlawflcombatnt

Economic Populist Forum

EconomicPopulistCommentary
_________________
The economy needs balance between the "means of production" & "means of consumption."

[James B]

I am only 60 but they have been juggling stats every since I can remember. I hope nobody thinks this is anything new.[:@]discusting yes, new, no way.