Can you trust Gov. econonic figures??

Question

Greenspan & Bernanski are no more than oracles, their guess is no better than your's....

Answer 1

No

There are really few figures that you can trust. The old adage of what is 2 +2 and the answer is "what do you want it to be?"

Answer 2

YES, of course! ...You don't think there's ALL KINDs of lobbyists & politics at play for years -- to raise interest rates, so that banking can profit as Wall St. and Big Oil have? Yet the gov't has fought-off these increases -- when say, a Jimmy Carter shot them to 18-19% (imagine that!), and Bush, Sr. placated the Banks, too.

Their 'guess' is far better than yours. You don't get the figures, until they give them to you. You don't see the national perspective, but local commerce -- unless you are a marketing/business exec. with stats in your own company, etc. and even then, it's limited to a particular industry. If you don't agree with someone (or authority) then hold reasons as to why.. but, if you disregard professional opinion based on processes that you don't comprehend (like econ. formulas that are complex, that they try to simplify -- and are then even more simplifiied by the media, for your consumption)... don't throw a rock at something you don't like. As far as TRUST goes -- there's more checks & balances criss-crossing across this information than you give credit. And simple reaction of Government = distrustful is meaningless, here. Without it, and without the media translating it -- and making money by selling ads to you, as you listen to the same processes of someone-else delivering information to YOU.. you'd be in the dark and grasping at straws. These guys aren't "oracles" -- they're spokepersons for the 100s and 1,000s that are compiling information that would make the teenage heads of most of these Yahoo kids, explode.

Answer 3

I don't trust anything that the government pronounces, publishes or pontificates over. And, frankly, neither should any of us. The government has proven itself to be untrustworthy over the past 50 years, and it's not getting any better. Here's just a partial list of things the government has lied to us about:
a) American U-2 spy planes flying over the U.S.S.R.;
b) The affects of Agent Orange of Vietnam veterans;
c) Secret CIA prisons;
d) U.S. ships being attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, which drew us into the Vietnam War;
e) "Weapons of mass destruction", which drew us into an unconstitutional and illegal 'war' with Iraq;
f) The truth behind Kennedy's assassination;
g) The truth behind our government's involvement in, or knowledge of, the 9-11 'terrorist attacks';
h) The torture and sexual abuse of 'detainees' at Abu Ghraib;
i) The truth about events surrounding incidents in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947;
j) The true cost of this insane 'war' in Iraq and how it will put American taxpayers TRILLIONS of dollars in debt.
If the government lies about these issues, WHY should we trust its economic figures?? As a free society, we have the rigth - and the duty - to question our government, express our skepticism, and demand absolute trustworthiness from all of our public servants. Unfotunately, even the sacred 'Fourth Estate' is no longer the watchdog over government activities that is is traditionally expected to be; if the media is 'in bed' with the government, then "we the people" must be ever more wary and vigilant. -RKO- 05/24/07

Answer 4

Half the time I don't even trust my own figures. I double check them, sometimes triple check them. We have to question their figures, even if we trust them. They are human and they can make mistakes, they can be mislead, and they can try to mislead.

Answer 5

Heck no you can't trust their figures on Econonic! And you can't trust their figures on Economics either!

Answer 6

HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Government and Trust go together as well as oil and water!

Answer 7

dunno