Carlos Lam

Weekly Unemployment: Lying with Numbers

On Jul 09 12:25 PM thiazole wrote:

> But what does that really tell us about the current direction of
> the economy?

I think you ask the wrong question, given the name of this article being "Lying with Numbers." The point is that the government uses seasonal adjustments -- as it does with the B[L]S birth/death model -- to make employment figures look "not as bad" as the situation on the ground exists. The same can be said of the substitutions and hedonic adjustments made to the CPI during the 1990s. Simply put, the author is asking readers to CONSIDER THE SOURCE when it comes to reported statistics and ask if the source has a vested interest in the reported figure. When it comes from an agency of a particular regime, whether it be our federal government or that of the People's Republic of China, that agency has a vested interest in making the regime look good.