Posted on 01/30/2010 10:48:06 AM PST by blam
Stock Market Plunges Through Thin Ice On Fake U.S. Economy GDP Growth Numbers?
Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2010
Jan 30, 2010 - 03:13 AM
By: Anthony Cherniawski
The economy in the U.S. expanded in the fourth quarter at the fastest pace in six years as factories cranked up assembly lines and companies increased investment in equipment and software.
The 5.7 percent increase in gross domestic product, which exceeded the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, marked the best performance since the third quarter of 2003, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. Efforts to rebuild depleted inventories contributed 3.4 percentage points to GDP, the most in two decades. The problem with this calculation is that government spending is included in the calculations and government employees are counted twice! This skews the numbers, especially in a quarter that saw government intervention in the markets and an expansion of government jobs (at the expense of private employers).
…and maybe too late?
Ben S. Bernanke, who won Senate approval for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman over a record number of opponents, may now have a tougher fight against threats to the central bank itself.
Lawmakers are considering legislation to remove a shield from congressional audits of monetary policy and strip the Fed of bank-supervision powers, measures that Bernanke opposes. Bernanke denies being involved in the AIG bailout fiasco. Nonetheless, the New York Fed is one of 12 Federal Reserve Banks that operate under the supervision of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, chaired by Ben Bernanke. Member-bank presidents are appointed by nine-member boards, who themselves are appointed largely by other bankers.
As Representative Marcy Kaptur told Geithner at the hearing: “A lot of people think that the president of the New York Fed works for the U.S. government. But in fact you work for the private banks that elected you.” That’s right, Mary.
The S&P 500 plunging through thin ice.
[snip]
Especially the ones in the $100k+ salary range!
bump
The only thing that exceeds the Obama Administration’s budget deficit is its believability deficit.
At this stage of the game it’s best to assume everything coming from the Badcrack syndicate is a lie, because it is.
It is worse than a lie. He and his goons want to turn the US into Zimbabwe, Haiti, Venezuela and other paradises.
Misery index on the up tick Obama scratches a$$.
Maybe the GDP should be called
Government Domestic Product.
Think about it. Government is taking over more and more of the private sector and the new GDP numbers do reflect that growth in government employment.
Out here in the real manufacturing economy things are not getting better. Actual consumer takeaway from stores is negative. Most of the order volume in the last six months has been to replenish inventories that were drawn down too low, not to supply real increased demand. Some raw materials and imported component parts are recording double digit cost increases which are impossible to pass along to customers by raising final product costs. Bank capital fro small manufacturing businesses does not exist. It appears this will be another year of flat wages, more job cuts, and shrinking margins. It is hard to see when and where job growth will begin in the private sector.
I've had that book for at least 20 years.
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