Sunday, March 12, 2006
Shadowing Reality
In a recent post, I noted the forthcoming commentary from contrarian economist and investment consultant John Williams--Walter J. "John" Williams--whose website (www.shadowstats.com) both promises and delivers "analysis behind and beyond government reporting," perhaps a nice way of saying: the government lies. That commentary is now available at this URL, hosted by Welling@Weeden:
http://www.weedenco.com/welling/Downloads/2006/0804welling022106.pdf
In this interview, he looks at the "official" reportage of unemployment, inflation, the GNP (now the GDP), the CPI, etc., and shows in great detail how the numbers are fudged to make our current economic situation look better than it really is. Revelations: real unemployment, which counts the "discouraged workers" who have given up finding a job, is running around 12 percent. Real CPI is running at around 8 percent. The real GDP "probably is in contraction."
Williams, moreover, outlines the history of the growth of these deceptions and shows what motivated them: politicians desiring re-election, and wanting to make the economy seem better than it really is (or was). They had willing bureaucrats in agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Commerce Department, so that one thing could lead to another.
As to how things really look ...
Well, when a company moves to Greenville with the promise of creating around 600 good-paying jobs, that's front page news. In reality, however, it hardly makes up for the thousands of manufacturing jobs that have been lost here over the past decade.
That URL again:
http://www.weedenco.com/welling/Downloads/2006/0804welling022106.pdf
http://www.weedenco.com/welling/Downloads/2006/0804welling022106.pdf
In this interview, he looks at the "official" reportage of unemployment, inflation, the GNP (now the GDP), the CPI, etc., and shows in great detail how the numbers are fudged to make our current economic situation look better than it really is. Revelations: real unemployment, which counts the "discouraged workers" who have given up finding a job, is running around 12 percent. Real CPI is running at around 8 percent. The real GDP "probably is in contraction."
Williams, moreover, outlines the history of the growth of these deceptions and shows what motivated them: politicians desiring re-election, and wanting to make the economy seem better than it really is (or was). They had willing bureaucrats in agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Commerce Department, so that one thing could lead to another.
As to how things really look ...
Well, when a company moves to Greenville with the promise of creating around 600 good-paying jobs, that's front page news. In reality, however, it hardly makes up for the thousands of manufacturing jobs that have been lost here over the past decade.
That URL again:
http://www.weedenco.com/welling/Downloads/2006/0804welling022106.pdf
