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+--- Thread: congrats in order ..... (/showthread.php?tid=54339)
Re: congrats in order ..... - MacMagus - 05-08-2008
> The figures HAVE been cooked...
That's very true. For example, the unemployment rate in this country is calculated at roughly one-half what it would have been calculated at in the 1980's using the same raw data.
The phenomenon is called "pollyanna creep."
http://www.straightstocks.com/politics-and-your-money/pollyanna-creep/
Re: congrats in order ..... - guitarist - 05-08-2008
[quote JoeH]Who says it is the opposing administration? Both parties have been cooking the figures the last couple decades, just happens that it is "W" in place at the moment.
Last couple decades? Try the last couple centuries. The assumption that there was this mythical time when economic or labor statistics weren't altered, measured inaccurately, politicized, or distorted, is the result of a short historical memory, or wishful thinking.
Re: congrats in order ..... - freeradical - 05-08-2008
Economic statistics are very difficult to measure even when people have pure intentions.
The United States does an excellent job of gathering and evaluating economic data, but we still always get it wrong. Economic statistics are initially reported, and then come the revisions, and revisions to revisions. It can't be helped.
Re: congrats in order ..... - JoeH - 05-08-2008
[quote guitarist][quote JoeH]Who says it is the opposing administration? Both parties have been cooking the figures the last couple decades, just happens that it is "W" in place at the moment.
Last couple decades? Try the last couple centuries. The assumption that there was this mythical time when economic or labor statistics weren't altered, measured inaccurately, politicized, or distorted, is the result of a short historical memory, or wishful thinking.
Now you are just being facetious. These kind of statistics have really only been done over the last century or so. So the "cooking" has gone on longer than a couple decades, the effects on the statistics has gotten pretty bad since about the late '70's. They really start to deviate from the "uncooked" recalculations based on the same data in the early '80's.