{"id":1095816,"date":"2019-01-22T21:35:42","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T21:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyreckoning.com\/?p=106594"},"modified":"2019-01-22T21:35:42","modified_gmt":"2019-01-22T21:35:42","slug":"statistics-the-bureaucrats-weapon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1095816","title":{"rendered":"Statistics: The Bureaucrat\u2019s Weapon"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post Statistics: The Bureaucrat\u2019s Weapon<\/a> appeared first on Daily Reckoning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The government \u201cshutdown\u201d enters its second month.<\/p>\n

But today we raise a celebratory cheer\u2026<\/p>\n

A cheer for the temporary unemployment of one subset of furloughed federal employees.<\/p>\n

We refer to the government statisticians who collect, sort, analyze, worry, torture and weaponize economic data.<\/p>\n

That is, those who throw false weights upon the scales in support of government policy x or government policy y.<\/p>\n

For without statistics the government is all thumbs, a plodding doofus… a fumbling cyclops speared through its one and only eye.<\/p>\n

This beast forms a greatly reduced menace to American liberty.<\/p>\n

Explains the late libertarian economist Murray Rothbard (with a polite tip of the cap to old Daily Reckoning <\/em>hand Gary North):<\/p>\n

\n

Certainly, only by statistics, can the federal government make even a fitful attempt to plan, regulate, control or reform various industries \u2014 or impose central planning… on the entire economic system. If the government received no railroad statistics, for example, how in the world could it even start to regulate railroad rates, finances and other affairs? How could the government impose price controls if it didn’t even know what goods have been sold on the market, and what prices were prevailing?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

More:<\/p>\n

\n

Statistics… are the eyes and ears of the interventionists: of the intellectual reformer, the politician and the government bureaucrat. Cut off those eyes and ears, destroy those crucial guidelines to knowledge and the whole threat of government intervention is almost completely eliminated.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That is, without statistics the government could not \u201cgovern\u201d us as it would.<\/p>\n

And to be governed, noted 19th-century philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon:<\/p>\n

\n

Is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded\u2026 registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished\u2026 drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed… repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We might file additional torts\u2026 but we operate on a strict word count.<\/p>\n

And the federal government presently lacks an entire bucketful of data to govern us…<\/p>\n

MarketWatch reports the current cataclysm may delay the following economic reports:<\/p>\n

Durable goods orders (Jan. 25)\u2026 core capital equipment orders (Jan. 25)… new home sales (Jan. 25)… advance trade in goods (Jan. 29)… housing vacancies (Jan. 29)… gross domestic product (Jan. 30)… personal income (Jan. 31)… core inflation (Jan. 31)… construction spending (Feb. 1).<\/p>\n

We prefer to be uninformed rather than misinformed.<\/p>\n

We therefore relish the prospect of going uninformed about the latest GDP numbers, for instance.<\/p>\n

Government at all levels is credited with a thumping 36% of U.S. GDP spending.<\/p>\n

But assume the government pays a fellow to dig a hole. Assume further it pays him to refill it.<\/p>\n

By the official telling, you have just witnessed an increase to the gross domestic product.<\/p>\n

Imagine further that the charade was financed through debt.<\/p>\n

In its GDP calculations, the Bureau of Economic Analysis suggests debt-financed government spending adds authentic oomph to the economy.<\/p>\n

But financial advisory firm Baker & Co. says money government borrows must eventually be repaid.<\/p>\n

Thus, it is not income. It is \u201cartificial stimulus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subtract the artificial stimulus, Baker argues\u2026 and real GDP has declined an average 7.45% each year since 2007.<\/p>\n

On a similar note…<\/p>\n

A fellow by the name of John Williams captains the website ShadowStats.<\/p>\n

His stated purpose is to expose and analyze \u201cflaws in current U.S. government economic data and reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government adds a cup of water to a cup of milk, for example. Thus may it claim to produce two cups of \u201cmilk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams penetrates the shim-sham \u2014 two cups of watery milk is not two cups of whole milk.<\/p>\n

Here is how official GDP stands against ShadowStats\u2019:<\/p>\n

\"Chart<\/p>\n

Revealed is a roughly 4% difference.<\/p>\n

Which data do you believe?<\/p>\n

Redirect your attention to the inflation rate\u2026<\/p>\n

Last year the official consumer price index (CPI) indicated a 2.44% rate of inflation.<\/p>\n

But if you measure inflation as the government measured inflation in 1980… a different sketch emerges.<\/p>\n

By the standards of 1980, CPI increased not 2.44% last year, says ShadowStats \u2014 but 9.6%<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"Chart<\/p>\n

Go here<\/a><\/strong> should you seek additional light about ShadowStats.<\/p>\n

Again, which do you believe?<\/p>\n

Perhaps ShadowStats stretches the figures some. No cloak of infallibility surrounds it.<\/p>\n

They nonetheless perform a capital service in our estimate:<\/p>\n

Exposing the government\u2019s statistical myths.<\/p>\n

So today we hoist the black flag of anarchy\u2026 and raise three cheers for our liberation from the government statistician, however temporary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head,\u201d said the irreplaceable Mencken.<\/p>\n

We would add but one detail:<\/p>\n

Be sure it\u2019s loaded\u2026<\/p>\n

Regards,<\/p>\n

Brian Maher
\nManaging editor, The Daily Reckoning<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Statistics: The Bureaucrat\u2019s Weapon<\/a> appeared first on Daily Reckoning<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post Statistics: The Bureaucrat’s Weapon<\/a> appeared first on Daily Reckoning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lock the government statisticians out of work permanently… Official government stats vs. “ShadowStats”…<\/p>\n

The post Statistics: The Bureaucrat’s Weapon<\/a> appeared first on Daily Reckoning<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1177,484,366,1178,1179,463],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1095816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1095818,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095816\/revisions\/1095818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1095816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1095816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1095816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}