The U.S. government is losing credibility. That is both an obvious and a useless observation without a sense of the consequences. Maybe, there are none. Maybe, the accumulating doubt concerning Benghazi, IRS intrusions, and NSA confiscation of privacy are wearing thin. If the latter proves correct, how will the people express their disillusion: “Voting with their feet,” so to speak? A glaring vulnerability is the gap between falling income and inflation. The government’s numbers are propaganda, and seem to have worked. The Fed, Bureau of Labor Statistics, reporters, and the academics who are paid to polish Goebbelism into a scholastic veneer, state that annual price inflation is short of 2%. John Williams, proprietor of Shadow Stats, estimates that if the Bureau of Labor Statistics used the same methodology for calculating the CPI as in 1980, the monthly figure released and disseminated to the public would be 9.4% (as of November, 2012).
Tag Archive for University Of Michigan
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Consumer Sentiment Stinks – WSJ
by Newswires • • 0 Comments
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell sharply to 74.1 in early June from its final-May reading of 79.3 and an early-May reading of 77.8, according to an economist who has seen the report. The end-May index was the highest sentiment level since October 2007. The drop in early June may reflect consumers…
Charts, Economics, Lee's Free Thinking, Must Read
Consumer, Retail, Consumer Confidence, Stocks and Housing – Don’t Believe The Media Boilerplate Hype
by Lee Adler • • 0 Comments
This is an update of the permanent page of Retail, Consumer Confidence, Housing and Stock Price Charts which will be updated whenever new data is available. You can bookmark that page for future reference. Updated June 6, 2012 Retail Sales and Real Retail Sales ex Gasoline Real retail sales, ex gasoline prices, and adjusted for inflation…
Charts, Economics, Must Read
University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment vs. Stocks and Housing
by Newswires • • 0 Comments
This chart is now in the Economic Chart Gallery and will be updated regularly. [singlepic id=62 w=480 h=360 ]Click to view full size. While the media trumpets gains in consumer confidence, the long term trend is miserable. Sentiment is barely back to 1992 recession levels, severely lagging the gains in stock prices or even the…
Latest Business Headlines, Lee's Free Thinking, Must Read
Mainstream Media Touts Consumer Sentiment 4-Year High, But Here’s What You Need to Know
by Lee Adler • • 2 Comments
Consumer Sentiment at More Than 4-Year High blared the headlines. Here’s what you really need to know about that.
Bears Chat, Best of the Forums, Must Read
U.S. Poverty: Census Finds Nearly Half Of Americans Are Poor Or Low-Income
by Bears Chat at The Wall Street Examiner • • 0 Comments
U.S. Poverty: Census Finds Nearly Half Of Americans Are Poor Or Low-Income
First Posted: 12/15/11 02:03 AM ET Updated: 12/15/11 10:05 AM ET
WASHINGTON — Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans – nearly 1 in 2 – have fallen…
Bears Chat, Best of the Forums
Americans Are Incredibly Depressed About the Conomy
by Bears Chat at The Wall Street Examiner • • 0 Comments
The Consumer Sentiment Survey of Americans, created by George Katona at the University of Michigan in the early 1950s and known today as the Thomson-Reuters University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, has included a remarkable question about the reas…
Bears Chat, Best of the Forums
Consumers are happy happy
by Bears Chat at The Wall Street Examiner • • 0 Comments
The preliminary August reading on the consumer sentiment index fell to 54.9 in early August, down from 63.7 in July, and the index has fallen for three straight months in the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan survey.
Lowest in more than 30 years.
…
Charts, Economics
Consumer Sentiment Is More Bearish Than Media Reports Show
by Lee Adler • • 0 Comments
Last November, the University of Michigan and Reuters stopped allowing third parties to update their Michigan Sentiment Index Charts. Maybe that’s because they didn’t want you to see how deep in the toilet we really are. Reuters is now apparently paying the University to keep the charts secret, just like Bloomberg paid off ABC News…