I have in the past lamented the fact that our government is
getting creative when it comes to reporting economic and employment numbers …
see: Funny Numbers.
Now we have another instance of culinary accounting when it
comes to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reportage. It seems that the Commerce
Department has moved something like $40 billion of Personal Consumption Expenditures
(PCE, a large piece of GDP) from the first quarter of calendar 2014 into the
third quarter. This PCE “adjustment” is also a bit of an anomaly in that it
represents U.S. citizens’ spending on Obamacare. This adjustment in turn caused
the first quarter of the year to look pathetic … basically 0% growth … and the
third, to appear gangbusters (that +5% figure that gave us all a warm holiday
glow) … see: Powerline Blog.
I think that some of our government’s numbers chefs might
have misread their recipe instructions
this time around … lest why didn’t they put this $40 billion PCE “adjustment”
into second quarter results where it would have done the most good politically
… right before November’s national elections.
I for one used mostly to trust what our government reported.
Now we all need to rethink such trust … particularly under the current
administration. The real problem is that, in trying to fool the American public,
this administration may well end up fooling itself … with dire consequences.
