Lies, Damned Lies, And Government Reports

Is there any difference?

Change is in the air. Over the last few months, the economic data has been consistently surprising to the upside thanks to temporary drivers like shoppers dipping into their savings and businesses restocking inventories, helping power stocks higher. This, in turn, has boosted consumer and business confidence back to recovery highs — levels not seen since last summer.

Now, “hard data” based on output and activity, not survey forms, is confirming my pessimistic outlook. The main culprit: Rising prices, especially on crude oil (nearing highs seen last spring) and gasoline (up nearly 40% since November). What makes higher inflation so dangerous is that not only does it tie the hands of the Federal Reserve and other central banks — who have almost single handedly engineered the post-November market rally — but it will pressure consumer spending.

But don’t worry. Bumbling Ben says we ain’t got no steenkeen inflation!

3 Responses to “Lies, Damned Lies, And Government Reports”

1. Gary from Jersey says:

   March 2, 2012 at 9:53 am

   Ol’ Ben must figure gas and food prices are rising to their true market value, which is why they were removed from the CPI.

2. Michael Lonie says:

   March 3, 2012 at 9:23 pm

   There’s no inflation, so long as you don’t count the most important components of peoples’ budgets after housing. Come to think of it, housing costs have taken such a beating over the last few years, if it is incorporated into the calculation, at some imputed rate for owner occupied housing, it’s no wonder there is no significant inflation being measured.

3. Greg Newson says:

   March 4, 2012 at 3:09 am

   We can not trust anything,anything, the government tells us about the economy.They have a vested interest in perpetuating their own domination of our society.We are living in the the Bizzaro world of the USSR of the 1960s.