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I was looking at the latest Gallup poll results regarding the economy -- and, in spite of the positive spin, it looks a great deal like commenting on "how good the corpse at a funeral looks"
Americans' increasing optimism about the economy's direction is largely responsible for the improvement in the overall monthly index. The percentage of Americans who say economic conditions are getting better has doubled since August, climbing to 36% in January. This is the most positive Americans have been on this metric since May, but still not quite as positive as they were in January of last year (41%).
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Americans' ratings of current economic conditions also improved in January, but to a somewhat lesser degree; still, they have essentially recovered to May levels.
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I don't want to be a pessimist, but, it still looks to me like 58% think the economy is getting worse vs 36% who believe it is getting better.... OR
88% believe the overall economy is 'poor to fair' vs 12% who believe it is 'excellent'.
I'm wondering if this is simply a reflection of 'election year politics' trying to put a positive spin on a really lousy economic picture.
These polls are just people's opinions. They tell you nothing about the actual economy. In fact, these opinion polls of the masses generally don't reflect reality.
I'm sure if you poll these people on the best movie of 2011, "The Artist" would not appear on the list but "Transformers" would be near the top.
The exact same unemployment formula used today, was used under Bush II, Clinton, Bush I, and Reagan.
Is that formula perfect, far from it. But to suggest that President Obama is cooking the books for election benefits? Thats being facetious.
I'm not suggesting that President Obama is 'cooking the books' .... but, simply observing that in election year, everything gets reported with a positive spin by the incumbent; ... and a negative spin by the challenger.
After a while, I, for one, stop attributing much credibility to the reported numbers.
I'm not suggesting that President Obama is 'cooking the books' .... but, simply observing that in election year, everything gets reported with a positive spin by the incumbent; ... and a negative spin by the challenger.
After a while, I, for one, stop attributing much credibility to the reported numbers.
Agreed, and Obama has the advantage of having the media in his bag, so we are going to be hearing a lot more about how great the economy is whether its true or not.
The truth is that NOBODY knows what the economy is actually doing. These "statistics" can be manipulated to read any way you like... and reported as fact. Polls are horrible indicators. They represent a far too small sample to be accurate.
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