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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JakeStraw who wrote (508552)	12/12/2003 3:28:16 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

Yeah, I know. Too bad they are basing their work upon the US government's statistics... which are 'tweaked and guesstimated' beyond all recognition. Take that '8.9% GDP growth rate' for the latest quarter, for example. How many know that's the number was based upon extensive 'hedonic-weighting', which --- in this quarter anyway --- guesstimated an IT sector spending around five times what was actually measured? Take away the 'thumb on the scales' weighting adjustments... and the quarter actually was MEASURED at an annualized growth rate of 3%. ...Still respectable, but a long way from the 'China like' "8.9%" massaged number they put out for the public to feed on. Look in the footnotes for the un-tweaked number, and you will see the same thing corporate CEOs have been telling us... growth in the quarter was OK, but nothing to write home about. Problem is: the short term factors 'goosing' the economy (mortgage refis, tax rebates, 'dead cat bounce' off of the hard cold floor, war spending, deficit financing, the most accomodative interest rates in 40 years, drop in energy costs, automotive price war and rebates....) are unlikely to have any "legs", and several of those factors have already reversed trend.