Just when you thought it couldn’t get more Orwellian, news came Thursday that government economists overstated 2nd quarter GDP numbers by whopping 31 percent. The BEA’s third revision to GDP for the quarter show that the economy actually grew at a pathetic annual rate of 1.3 percent rather than the previously-stated 1.7 percent.
According to a Bureau of Economic Analysis report issued last year, the mean revision of this estimate since 1983 is 0.12 in real dollars. That means that the current revision of 0.4 is more than three times the norm.
And while the media will be busy blaming the GDP numbers on “peaceful Libyans outraged by American disrespect for the Prophet,” a closer look at the numbers say that it was an act of god, not the Prophet, that is responsible.
Not an act of the God, but rather an act of a god.
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Because the other reason put forth by the media for the poor GDP numbers are that an act of God- the drought- brought down farm inventory levels. And while no doubt it’s true that crop inventory levels have been affected by the drought, it’s also true that the only upward revision in GDP went to the only act of god that Obama and liberals recognize- government spending.
Contrary to Obama’s assertion that the private sector economy is doing “just fine” inventories for businesses are dropping, meaning businesses are holding on to cash.
“Inventory investment posted the largest downward revision,” reports financial wire service MNI, “now reported at a $41.4 billion rise for the second quarter compared with the $49.9 billion increase in the second estimate. The contribution for inventory investment now stands at -0.46, compared with -0.23 in the second estimate.”
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Also revised downward were numbers for personal consumption, residential and nonresidential fixed investment.
The widening trade gap, largely a function of high oil prices- thanks Obama and Ben Bernnake!- and troubles in the Eurozone and Asia, also contributed to the downward slurge.
Apparently economists didn’t see the revision from the “drought” coming, which we all know was brought on by global warming incited by insults to the Prophet.
Also contributing to the drought we know now is the war on women that Republicans are waging by concentrating on private job creation versus really important issues like Sandra Fluke making a religious organization pay for her copulation on demand- another act of God moment - or god moment - depending on whether you bitterly cling to your religion, or. Alternately, you gave up being a liberal long ago.
“Economists polled by Reuters had expected second-quarter GDP growth would be unrevised at a 1.7 percent pace. The economy grew at a 2.0 percent pace in the January-March period.”
“The worst drought in half a century,” explains Reuters, “which gripped large parts of the country in the summer, saw farm inventories dropping $5.3 billion in the second quarter after slipping $1 billion in the first three months of the year.”
“Data in hand for the third-quarter suggest little improvement in the growth pace,” concludes Reuters, “even as the housing market digs out of a six-year slump.”
Oh. My. God.
What a disaster Obama’s god has created.
While the numbers probably don’t mean much for the markets, they should give pollsters, wonks, the media, economists, experts and the professional policy types a bit to ponder.
The markets will roll on because what pollsters, wonks, the media, economists, experts and the professional policy types want finally came to pass. Ben Bernake, in conjunction with the god of great government, is printing dollars again.
Oil prices are up, stocks are making new highs, so who cares about jobs?
Only suckers don’t have jobs in this economy.
The pollsters, wonks, the media, economists, experts and the professional policy types are too busy bowing to the god of government to worry about mundane stuff like jobs and the economy.
And yes, I’m taking about the only god they have ever recognized: Obama.
God, isn’t government great?
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