Carrol Cox wrote:
ravi wrote:
You may also have to take into consideration the other issue raised in
Jim's post: that indices are redefined so that the practitioners do not
have to practice dishonesty at all (his examples were unemployment and
the CPI). Perhaps the burden of proving (or at least demonstrating some
valid suspicion) that is the case, falls on Leigh, in this instance.
We began with a relatively narrow question: How much manufacturing is
done in the u.s.
The CPI is a matter of a few tenths of a percentage point. Sure that
compounds over time, but it's not a night vs. day issue. The
unemployment change in the Reagan era - adding in the military, which
is by defintion fully employed - lowered the rate by 0.1 percentage
point. No one paid any attention to the new version, and it was
quickly reversed. Whether the gross output of U.S. manufacturing is
$3.8 trillion or $4.4 trillion doesn't matter - it's still a very big
number.
Doug
