Here’s a good current article on M3 and the two primary alternative stat sources.

http://www.minyanville.com/articles/dollar-euro-money-currency-M3-contraction/index/a/18609

econavenger on August 28, 2008 at 6:38 PM

Thank you for your postings on this thread!

Incidentally: is M3 now gone forever? Did the Fed finally pull the plug & stop reporting this for good? (IYO is this relevant and/or related to the alleged manipulation of economic data by the Fed?)

The Dems will say it is because of the “Stimulus Package”.

AlreadyKnownAs on August 28, 2008 at 6:03 PM

The truth is probably more like “in spite of…”
Investment drives the economy, not consumption. Borrowing money to give “tax credits” sounds like a tax cut, but, unless all of that money is in tern invested (in things with a better rate of return than US bonds), it on net drains capital investment, slowing the economy.

So I’m glad to hear the economy is doing well anyway.

J-Ger paraphrases Senator Rogaine’s acceptance speech: America has never had it worse, never mind the “malaise” and hostage crisis of the Carter years, the chaos of the late 60s, the Great Depression, the Civil War… an increase in the median……

The books have always been cooked, so you’ll hear that every month of the rest of your life probably. Only now are major investigative articles and documentaries being published to expose the depth of it. Both parties know the deal. We live as well as we do by recklessly ignoring GAAP and fortunately getting others to hold dollars in reserve to compensate. It’s just that the need to adjust figures becomes greater and greater to address a troubled dollar and flawed policy decisions that were based on the previous round of numbers. Clinton and Greenspan just made it much worse long-term now for us so they could create a worthless short-term legacy for themselves.

Other nations now trading dollars for banking assets is what’s keeping the financial system afloat. The competitive devaluation of other currencies has also kicked in to prevent the dollar from collapsing. We’re good…for now.

But for those who know what’s going on, the real bad economic news has never been forecast to hit before the election. The real estate, financial sector and banking system near-collapse was predicted and arrived, then this period of recovery was predicted and arrived. Then comes the debt deflation day of reckoning. The few people who knew how the entire system would react when under stress are still tracking 100% on their predictions and will remain at 100% when it’s over. The only variable now is a policy choice for a quicker hard or a slow crash depending on who’s elected and how bad it is in other nations. Quicker is preferred.

Putting your head in the sand won’t help your family survive trouble. Just think of the billions in total conservative wealth Rush Limbaugh had a hand in destroying the last 12 months by alleging that it was all an MSM conspiracy. Rush is right 99% of the time, but on this he was a total bufoon.

Economy grew 3.3% in Q2
Phill Gramm may have worded his assertion in an impolitic manner, but the latest economic data proves him correct. The US economy grew at an annual rate of 3.3% in the second quarter, almost twice as much as first……

Well, if you bought $1000 worth of gold in March you lost $700. Being a chicken little doesn’t pay.

NoDonkey on August 28, 2008 at 3:34 PM

How so? It closed at about $840 today.

The sky isn’t falling after all…

I wonder what the next “hell in a handbasket” crisis will be???

We’re all DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED.

Geez these threads are so predictable.

Every time we get the same stuff about how the books were cooked and next quarter things are REALLY going to go to hell in a breadbasket.

And then the next quarter we get the same stuff about how the books were cooked and next quarter things are REALLY going to go to hell in a breadbasket.

Etc.

Well, if you bought $1000 worth of gold in March you lost $700. Being a chicken little doesn’t pay.

A growth rate of 3.3% is a good, solid number, one that exceeds inflation and shows real substance in the economy.

The 3.3% rate is reported as the rate of real GDP growth, which is already net of inflation.

Kralizec on August 28, 2008 at 11:54 AM

Not quite. CPI is a white lie morphed into a total fraud, as everyone pretty much knows now. But the GDP figure is actually produced using a price index that’s deviating even from that to create an almost Orwellian statistic of plenty.

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/08/are-you-measuri.html

Luckily the incumbent Dems play the game too because they need reelected as well. Clinton and Greenspan are the ones who really started the slippery slope we’re on anyhow. Because of them, in order to produce these pleasing looking numbers for the restless voting masses you must unfortunately continually accelerate the statistical fraud. It does have a beneficial aspect though to increase confidence and keep people spending when otherwise they would tighten the belt.

There’s no wage price spiral because worker leverage is gone compared to the 70s. Thus the need for helicopter drop stimulus checks keep the economy from crashing. They have to do that or else artificially inflate wages to keep things from grinding to a halt.

The doom of the GOP is blindly believing the government spin on the economy.

Let’s see, the gov’t borrowed money to issue stimulus checks, and consumers ramped up their credit card bills while skipping payments on their mortgages.

And consumers are 70% of the economy.

So we borrowed a quarter’s worth of growth for the GDP to maintain an illusion of economic health. And it is an illusion – the last 3 years of apparent prosperity was ALL BORROWED and financed by bull**** loans.

This is good news?

That’s good news but calling it the “Clinton recession” just reduces you to the level of those that call it the Bush recession. Neither one of them had anything to do with it.

Clinton had nothing to do with the booming economy in the late 90’s either, but he almost broke his arm patting himself on the back for it.

Clinton was a terrible President. He deserves to be beaten with any stick that’s available at the time.

Straight talk.

I will speak with a straight tongue. I have heard talk and talk, but nothing is done. My father was the first to see through the schemes of this man. My father had sharper eyes than the rest of our people.

I wonder what role the tax rebates played in this? Isn’t Bernanke warning the economy may not be so strong the rest of the year? We’ll have to wait and see.

cornfedbubba on August 28, 2008 at 10:20 AM

Record exports and the temporary stimulus from the tax rebates prevented the economy from stalling as housing slumped and companies cut expenditures. Consumer spending is now waning and slower growth abroad dims the outlook for foreign sales, signaling last quarter will be the year’s highpoint.

“Outside of trade, the economy is considerably weaker,” said Carl Riccadonna, an economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in New York. “When you look at the spending, it looks terrible for the second half of the year.”
- Bloomberg

Economy grew 3.3% in Q2

You can believe the GDP revision to 3.3% growth for Q2 to the same degree that you can believe that inflation is running at an annual rate of 1.2%, which is what was used for the deflator to calculate the GDP revision.

And if you believe that, I have got ocean front property in Kansas to sell you.

I never thought it showed the ‘incompetence’ of the bush administration, thats what governors, and mayors are for, or why bother to have them? its just more of the liberal mind-set, wait for the guvmint to save them…if they’re that stupid, then let em drown.

right4life on August 28, 2008 at 11:42 AM

I PERSONALLY agree with this. This could be a place where Jindal could shine. But still there is very little that can be done if a major hurricane makes a direct hit other than stock up on Sham-Wow’s.

The incompetence is their not knowing that there were people in need of rescue in the place that they were told to go to be rescued. ‘You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie’ didn’t become a catch phrase for nothing.

The 3.3% rate is reported as the rate of real GDP growth, which is already net of inflation.

Kralizec on August 28, 2008 at 11:54 AM

yep, the anti-Fed cranks come back though with “real Inflation” is double digits and is masked by the all powerful and evil Federal Reserve.

They don’t give a rip about Economics, just are anti-Govt. and anti-Fed to the point of being idiots