The Rachel Maddow Show - Elizabeth Warren on risk and regulation

[chervilant]

2. Also...

Our global economy is undergoing catastrophic change. Those individuals charged with monitoring, analyzing, and reporting economic 'trends' are well aware of the unpredictability of the human element (why do you think they stopped calling economic downturns 'Panics'?).

In short, monthly--even quarterly--reports (or 'assessments,' as it were) are seldom relevant to the 'bigger' economic landscape.

Also, we seldom acknowledge the regular 'revisions' of economic data released by the feds, to whit:

For this annual revision, the most notable revisions are generally limited to the period from 2008 to the first quarter of 2011. The revisions for earlier periods tend to be small.

* For 2007-2010, real GDP decreased at an average annual rate of 0.3 percent; in the previously published estimates, real GDP had increased at an average annual rate of less than 0.1%.
* From the fourth quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2011, real GDP decreased at an
average annual rate of 0.2 percent; in the previously published estimates, real GDP had
increased at an average annual rate of 0.2 percent.

(From US DOC, BEA Current GDP Data released July 29, 2011--a Friday, naturally)

Our 'erudite' economists can offer short-term projections until the cows come home. It will not change the fact that disaster capitalism is both damaging and unsustainable, and that we are witness to global convulsions that promise to change our species' economic behaviors.