There are 4 great economic lies foisted on the hoi-polloi by chattering economists who know very little about the economy, and government – statist politicians and bureaucrats who know even less than the economists. GDP, inflation, unemployment and ‘the consumer is 70% of the economy’ are mendaciously deceitful and illiterate. Damned lies all of them. So when the Black Jesus and his cabal of Chicago-crooks announce that US GDP grew 5.7 % [oh how very precise], in Q4 2009, have a good laugh. It is all bull-puddy.
The great economic lies:
1 and 2) GDP and CPI
A great website which debunks the GDP lie is John Williams’
www.shadowstats.com which clearly shows that the US Federal government intentionally distorts both GDP and CPI. GDP is nothing more than a spending algorithm [see
here for why it is a fraud], and has little relationship to the real economy. Originally devised by Kuznets in 1934, its intention was merely to provide a rough gauge of government policy on the very broad macro-economy. Now, somehow, 80 years later, it is a sacrosanct measurement of all transactions and trade within a state.
GDP is a grotesque assessment of the economy. It includes inter-alia:
-All gross consumer spending [you could go borrow $10.000 on your credit card, spend it, never pay back your debt and presto! GDP grew by $10.000]
-All Government spending and welfare transfers [no debt, no interest costs and no costs for printing money]
-Net of Exports minus imports [you could stop imports tomorrow and presto! the GDP just went up]
-Subjective assessments by politicians and bureaucrats [some 30% of GDP is complete guesswork, which makes the precision of the number so laughable ie. 5.7 % Q4 2009 growth. Oh please.]
GDP is a rube’s rubric. It has little relationship with reality. If you were to borrow a few Trillion from the Chinese and build mini-Versailles’ across the country, the GDP would accelerate by the level of what was borrowed. In the real world, the economy did not grow since it was artificially stimulated by debt. Yet for economists there would be breathless joy at the increase in macro-economic activity.
Add against this illusion the real facts of inflation. Again government's ‘manage’ the inflation number to their advantage. So more than 50% of the usual household costs in food, energy and housing is left out of the inflation calculation. Another ‘innovation’ from the Clinton era. As Williams’ shadowstats.com website makes clear, real inflation is well above 5% for the average person living in the real world in America. If you were to apply this true inflation ‘deflator’ against the government sponsored GDP lie, the actual economy growth is negative.
3) Unemployment
Roughly speaking if the government disinformation ministries who need to buy votes, have high approval ratings and demonstrate that ‘they are doing something for the little guy’, tell you that unemployment is 10% than the real number is at least 20 %. One must double the government propaganda to get a truer estimate of economic un and under-employment. Another recent political invention is to leave off the unemployment number those who have stopped looking; those who are under-employed; those who can work but have doctor certificates ‘proving’ that they can’t; and those on government work-fare programs, most of which only supply a few hours a week of work. Add in these groups and the rate would surely double.
The other way to view this lie is to look at the real numbers and trends in employment levels. All people between the ages of 18 and 60 can work. You can strip out; students, retirees, those who choose to manage the home [but are not on welfare]; and those with legitimate injuries who can’t work. Everyone else must be counted as being employable. The real ‘employment’ rate should be therefore about 85% - yet we know that in Western states no more than 65% of the employable are actually working.
4) The consumer is 70% of the economy !
Business and the suppliers of jobs and capital are 70% of the economy, not the consumer. The real value added size of a state’s economy, if calculated correctly, would make it obvious that business and the transactional values in the business supply-retail chain, are the driving factors in economic growth. This fact would force politicians to switch from demand/consumer side management to supply-side, and pro growth management policies which include tax and spending cuts. Since politicians want to increase their power by taxing more and spending more, the insanity of the claim that the consumer is the economy [and therefore needs to be managed, given welfare, and has to be supported against business by the government], is assured.
[For some details on why this is an evil lie see
here]
These 4 key distortions do however feed the stock market, people’s psychology and inform large corporate spending and budgetary plans. There are also accepted by the mainstream media as ‘facts’ – as much as Keynesian economics forwarded by the charlatan and effete homosexual Keynes, is accepted by academe as an ‘iron law’ of macroeconomics. What is needed are real numbers and analysis which would lead ineluctably to real proposals to increase the size of the real economy which is only provided by the suppliers and actors in a private market, not by government.