Kevin Phillips on cooking economic statistics

[scholarsOrAcademics]

this is old news by now probably to readers on this site,but there are interesting twists mentioned in his article in Harpers's (May) and undoutably in his newest book--Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, published in April. On the Hedonic Adjustment--"If quality improvements are to be counted, that counted, that counmt should have begun in the 1950's and 1960's, when such products and services as air-conditioning, air travel, and automatic tansmissions--and these are just the A's!--improved consumer satisvaction to a compoarable or greater degree than have more recent innovations". This is one of the 'adjustments' that have been made to the Gross National Product statistics to make them more accurate. To me it smells of cooking the books.

[Celebration]

1. How about decreased consumer satisfaction?

Products and services should be adjusted the other way when we have to do things like talk to people with foreign accents to figure out our telephone or internet service, and punch an endless array of buttons on the telephone to *never* talk to a live person.