Paul Krugman says that we'll soon realize that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is growing. He actually said that on the Sunday TV chat circuit. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I would really like to know what you mean by that Paul, you fatuous wanker.
Ha! I love it.
Kunstler then goes on to ask exactly how the economy is expected to revive-- more McMansions? More SUVs? More day trading?
Do you mean that the Home Equity Fairy is going to wade into the sea of foreclosure and save twenty million mortgage holders currently sojourning in the fathomless depths with the anglerfish? ... Do you mean that American Express and Master Card are about to declare a Jubilee on accounts in default everywhere? Do you mean that General Motors will produce a car that a.) anyone really wants to buy and b.) that the company can sell at a profit? Are you saying we get a do-over, going back to, say, 1981? Did we win some cosmic lottery that hasn't been announced yet? What's growing in this country besides unemployment, bankruptcy, repossession, liquidation, gun ownership, and suicidal despair? In short, are you out of your mind, Paul Krugman?
GDP figures, according to economist John Williams, are so finagled and manipulated and so politically driven as to be useless. Krugman may be right in strictly nominal terms-- we could see positive GDP numbers for a quarter here or there. We shouldn't be distracted by such things.
As Ilargi over at The Automatic Earth has pointed out, we might instead measure our economic health in terms of the poverty rate, the unemployment rate, the number of homeless, or the percentage receiving food aid. That gives you a better picture of what the economy feels like on the ground, out in the streets. And, politicians take note: poverty measures are surely far better predictors of civil unrest than some bullshit GDP figures nobody believes anymore.
No comments:
Post a Comment