The Economy

WTF did anybody expect?

"SHUT IT ALL DOWN!!!!"

"HEY, THE ECONOMY SHRANK 33 PERCENT!"

You can't advocate the former and act surprised/blameful of the latter.

 

NO, but you can point out that the Federal government's failure to act has directly led to economic pain that we're experiencing today unlike most all other first world countries we compare ourselves too.

But you knew that already.

 

The headlines in the previous link (repeated below) are grossly misleading. The economy did NOT shrink by 33 percent in the second quarter.

U.S. economy shrank at record-breaking 33 percent last quarter, worst in more than 70 years

The story does accurately add in the words "annual rate," but the failure to point out the decline for the quarter was actually 9.5 percent is inexcusable and sure to mislead tons of people (as it did here). But I'm sure it was orgasmic for the doomers.

The NYT tweet words it more accurately.



And BTW, Germany's shrank 10.1 percent.

Germany's Economy Suffers Biggest Quarterly Drop On Record

So much for "unlike the countries we compare ourselves to."

 

GOLD!

Economic Uncertainty Drives Gold Price To A Record High

 

Wait, I thought economic uncertainty is why old white people voted for a racist idiot in 2016.

 

As you well know, Germany's economy is tied in many ways to our own; but that aside, let's compare this current quarter when the time comes, because (again, as you well know) the second quarter was when both economies were deep into the COVID pandemic...unfortunately, while Germany's COVID numbers are creeping up, ours is leading the world.

 

Germany: The country everybody envies unless they don't envy it.

 

That 33 percent in the second quarter included the efforts by Trumpist and other states to reopen in May and June. How bad could it have been?

 

"Thanks for the clarification. It's good to know the economy did not contract by 33 percent in the second quarter, and shame on so many media outlets for creating the wrong impression" was the correct response.

 

Reminder: The recession began in February, 2 months before the COVID-19 closures.

It's official: Recession began in February, ending longest U.S. expansion ever

 

A certain someone around here was right after all.

Gold rises toward fresh record high, knocks on the door of $2,100

Gold spikes to record as BofA predicts $3K price tag

 

Shame on the media for pointing to a number that BTE doesn't like. How dare they measure a fall in the economy in multiple different ways. And how dare people blame Trump's lack of response for the drop instead of wondering why we kept people from getting riblets participating fully in the economy. I mean, had we taken this seriously, not claimed it was a hoax and actually stuck to benchmarks for reopening rather than just saying "oh a couple of days of declines REOPEN EVERYTHING!!!!"

But, nuance.