Reality and Honesty

The stock market took a tumble this past week. One wonders if the market is predicting dire things to come, or is, itself, catching up to reality.

The Bush Administration has been touting a 3.8% increase in wages over the past year. However, when Secretary of the Treasury Snow was questioned before Congress, he admitted the numbers were not adjusted for inflation. When one undertakes that standard adjustment for all economic numbers involving prices, all of the gains in wages disappear. The misinformation coming from the White House manages to be both patently and absurdly false and dishonest.

Another piece of dishonesty coming from the Bush Administration is that tax cuts have spurred investment. However, when you exclude housing investment, you find that business investment has stagnated.

Thus, we come around to the basic fact that the economy has grown because of consumer spending. This consumer spending has been fueled by the housing sector through a combination of low interest rates and personal, public, and international debt at unsustainable levels.

Honest folks who study and comment on these things, be they socialist or conservative or somewhere in between, all agree on the basic numbers and facts. Naturally, predictions and prescriptions vary, but the facts are seldom in dispute.

That is unless it comes from the Bush Administration, all of whom appear to be ignorant or dishonest or both.

Oh, did I just say the unspeakable? I called people who tell lies liars.