Commerce Department: Economy Worse Than Expected

[Phred42]

That, of course, is a LIE.

They've known how bad it is and where this will end up. They will only give it to us in small increments. I keep saying, they never give us the real numbers initially - not even secondarily.

Commerce Department: Economy Worse Than Expected
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/25/economys-tumble-even-wors_n_146287.html

WASHINGTON — The economy took a tumble in the summer that was worse than first thought as American consumers throttled back their spending by the most in 28 years, further proof the country is almost certainly in the throes of a painful recession.

The updated reading on the economy's performance, released Tuesday by the Commerce Department, showed gross domestic product shrank at a 0.5 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter.

That was weaker than the 0.3 percent rate of decline first estimated a month ago, and marked the worst showing since the economy contracted at a 1.4 percent pace in the third quarter of 2001, when the nation was suffering through its last recession.

GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced within the U.S. and is considered the best barometer of the country's economic fitness.

[phantom power]

1. The old question -- lying, or just stupid...

In the end, they're both equally bad news.

It's a weird kabuki theater. At this point, everybody knows exactly how bad things are, and where they're headed.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. The old answer-- Both.

[ThomWV]

3. Maybe that is why Richardson has been dispatched there to clean up the Department

One of the greater purposful failures of the Bush Administration has been to cause scanty reporting by the Agencies and Departments and then sometimes reporting of misleading information. You can not believe one single statistical word coming out of Washington and haven't been able to for years now.

Anyway isn't Bill Richardson going to be the new Secretary of Commerce? I thought I heard that last week.