“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” may not be policy in the military any longer when it comes to a soldier’s sexual preference; but it is definitely government policy when it comes to reporting on the state of our economy or on unemployment data. When a government agency or the President spouts a glowing feel good statistic about how well the economy is doing, they prefer you don’t ask why their numbers don’t square with your reality so they won’t have to tell you the truth. For the minority of Americans who are wanting to know the truth, they generally have to got to alternative news sources to find out that the unemployment numbers are down because more and more people are dropping out of the workforce or that the majority new jobs are either part-time or low wage jobs.
The same deception is used when reporting on the GDP. We were recently treated to glowing reports that 3rd Quarter GDP was a whopping 5%. The Wall Street cheerleaders at CNBC were absolutely giddy in their reports that the economy had finally reached escape velocity. Consumers were finally spending like they hadn’t done in six years! Really? Is that what you folks on Main Street were seeing in July, August, and September? Does that reflect your reality? Of course not! So, how did our government come up with such seemingly out-of-whack spending data for the 3rd Quarter?
It turns out you were spending more money; but over three quarters instead of one quarter. What were you buying so much of that it had such a cumulative impact on the GDP? Apparently the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) didn’t want to embarrass the Obama administration with the low ObamaCare purchases in the first and second quarters of the year; so they didn’t include them the GDP number for those quarters. Instead, they dumped three quarters of your ObamaCare spending into the 3rd Quarter. What they don’t want you to ask and what they don’t want to tell you is that 2/3 of the fabulous 5% GDP number is due to your shelling out for ObamaCare since the beginning of the year. You can read all about it here. But don’t tell Wall Street. They are still celebrating.
Well, that’s what I’m thinking. What are your thoughts?
Asylum Watch 
Sure we were spending more: $5.00 for a pound of butter and $9.00 for a pound of coffee if we didn’t hold off for sale prices unless of course one has a SNAP card which makes prices irrelevant.
After 12 years of running my car into the ground, what was I suppose to do? Yep, shelled out for a new one. We common folk have to break down eventually and go into hock just to get from here to there. Yep, things are much better.
The GDP doesn’t tell you very much about most people.
There are some numbers that should concern us, though. Here’s a few…
$585 Billion – that’s the House budget so far for the military next year. If the US was a family making 50K a year, that family would be spending 10K of that on ADT.
$500 Million – Federal funding for Alzheimer’s research.
$150 Billion – that’s what Medicare and Medicaid will spend this year on Alzheimer’s and related dementias, which leads us to… 78 Million – Baby Boomers, who are just starting to retire and grow old, and who ought to be far more concerned with losing their minds than policing the world.
JMJ
Yes. The economy is doing great. Nothing to see here people. Move along.