Re: Re: Brekky table gossip

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom Walket writes:
> ... Featured with the Greenspan rumour is Friday's Dresdner bank
> "forecast" of a 1.5% productivity revision. The productivity revision is
> out and it's 2.5%. So much for the Apocalyse. ...

and why do these financial whizzes care about a statistic for only one
quarter, one that will likely be revised within the next year or so? (See
Dean Baker's comment on these stats, how revisions make the "New Economy"
look more paltry.) They deserve their fate if they are so superficial.

Of courser, they don't really care about productivity growth at all.
Instead, they care about what it's reported to be relative to what it was
predicted to be. As JMK pointed out, it's like a beauty contest, with
everyone betting on who everyone else _thinks_ is the most beautiful
contestant.

is "Brekky" the same as breakfast?

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine