The last open thread got stale, so here's another one.
To jumpstart the conversation, I see that Bill McBride (formerly Calculated Risk) believes The Future Is Still Bright! He's talking about the American economy.
Early this year I wrote The Future's so Bright .... In that post I outlined why I was becoming more optimistic, even though there might be too much deficit reduction in 2013. As I noted, "ex-austerity, we'd probably be looking at a decent year" in 2013. And of course - looking forward - Congress remains the key downside risk to the U.S. economy...
And then Bill, who has never seen government economic data he didn't believe no questions asked, goes through a bunch a charts, each of which is pretty damn depressing if you really look at it, but in doing so confirms once again that delusional Optimism is innate and thus incurable.
Omitting crucial data is one way to keep your head firmly planted up your ass, so Bill makes sure to leave out charts which might make him look like the hopeless fool that he is.
From CNN's Workers don't share in companies' productivity gains, published in March, 2013. Hat tip to Mish, who wrote about it today.
Bill also "forgot" to note that new median household income data indicates that the American Dream is deader than a doornail. In 2013 GDP terms, in the 2nd quarter "real Gross Domestic Product rose at a 1.7 percent annual rate, up from a 1.1 percent rate in the first quarter." Whoop-de-doo!
For those of you who are interested in understanding confirmation bias, Bill provides a textbook example. Reality having been stood on its head, Bill finishes with a flourish.
Last year, I said that looking forward, [that] I was the most optimistic since the '90s. And things are only getting better. The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades (links to video below).
Things are only getting better...
I mean, it's impossible to even satirize this horseshit anymore. Still, Clarke and Dawes are still trying (funny).
If you read economic news, every time there is good economic news the price of oil goes up. Every time there is bad news, the price drops. Don't these folks see we are between a rock and a hard place and are resource limited?
Posted by: John D | 08/26/2013 at 11:51 AM