ConservativeINC

One thing you have to learn about economics and, probably more accurately, the reporting of economic activity is that it is never right when it is first reported and that no matter what the economic data it will always be the case that the poor, minorities, and women will be hardest hit. Curiously enough it seems to usually be the case that good economic indicators are being revised upwards and bad economic indicators are being revised downwards during the Bush administration’s tenure. Coincidence?

An article from the Wall Street Journal summarizes the revised data this way:

Positive Revisions:
GDP growth revised from 3.4% to 4.0%
Profits after taxes increased 5.4%
Increase in business inventories revised from $3.6 billion to $5.4 billion
Export growth revised from 6.4% to 7.6%
Import decline revised from 2.6% to 3.2%
Business spending increase revised from 8.1% to 11.1%
Consumer spending increase revised from 1.3% to 1.4%
Durable-goods purchase increase revised from 1.6% to 1.7%
Real final sales of domestic product revised from 3.2% to 3.7%
Federal Government spending increase revised from 6.7% to 5.9%
price index for personal consumption revised from 4.3% to 4.2%
PCE excluding food and energy revised from 1.4% to 1.3%
Price index for gross domestic purchases revised from 3.9% to 3.8%

Negative Revisions:
Residential fixed investment decline revised from 9.3% to 11.6%
Jobless claims for week of Aug. 18 revised from 322,000 to 325,000

Not all the news is positive, for sure. For example more people were added to the ranks of the unemployed. But even this is not all bad because:

There were 15 states and territories reporting an increase in initial jobless claims for the Aug. 18 week, while 38 reported a decrease.

California had the biggest decrease, 3,983, thanks to fewer layoffs in transportation, communications, and public utilities industries. Michigan reported the sharpest increase, 3,254, due to layoffs in the automobile industries.

Seeing these positive revisions should be uplifting people’s feelings regarding their economic position. But consumer confidence and other such indicators are going the other way. A lot about the economy is based on perceptions. Having a media that trumpets every plausible weakening of the market does not help. BigT