Former White House economist Michael J. Boskin (pictured left) says American investors no longer place much credibility in the economic and fiscal statistics being reported by the U.S. government, and are "increasingly inclined to disbelieve them." Boskin, the one-time economic adviser to President George H.W. Bush, says that solid, reliable information is needed by investors, because "as a society, and as individuals, we need to make difficult, even wrenching choices, often with grave consequences." To base those decisions on misleading, biased, or manufactured numbers, is not just wrong, "but dangerous," he wrote in The Wall Street Journal. But, due to the obvious fudging of numbers involved in the government's health care insurance industry reform effort, most Americans now believe the health-care legislation will actually raise their insurance costs, rather than reduce them, and increase the federal budget deficit, rather than contain it. That's not the only area where cynicism over official statistics is growing. "Most Americans are highly skeptical of the claims of climate extremists," writes Boskin, now a professor of economics at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. – MoneyNews
Dominant Social Theme: A growing problem?
Free-Market Analysis: Boskin makes the case that Americans are putting less and less faith in government statistics, but in fact this is only a sign of the times. It is actually very difficult to come up with an understanding of what is going on in America if one restricts oneself to the kind of analysis that Boskin is offering here. A one-time advisor to George Bush senior, which should set off alarm bells of itself, Boskin does what many faux-critics of the current American environment do, he focuses on substantive but serial difficulties and in this case (predictably) is seemingly taking aim at the Obama administration.
What responsibility exactly the Obama administration has for the US cooked figures is unclear. The problems with the US government and truth-telling in general go back at least 150 years to the Civil War (War Between the States) and the institutionalized malfeasance of Abraham Lincoln in terms of locking up journalists, locking down New York, censoring war reports and finally sending General Sherman to destroy every major city south of the Mason Dixon line for the temerity of trying do something the Constitution apparently allowed – secede. Now there were some manipulations! Actually, there were plenty of broken treaties and broken promises involving Native Americans even before the Civil War, so to imply that the American government has only turned dishonest lately is somewhat questionable to say the least.
If one wants to focus on financial information, the information offered by the American government regarding the Federal Reserve – which is neither federal nor a reserve – is patently dishonest and has been since the formation of that body. The progressive income tax was apparently supposed to be a corporate tax and was never supposed to hit individual income makers. In any event it was apparently never ratified by all the states and finally simply "proclaimed" into existence by the US Treasury. Go back to the 1800s and try to figure out how the American judiciary came up with the idea of "corporations" to begin with – disembodied beings that have human attributes for contractual purposes even though they are not alive. Once people could separate themselves from the consequences of their business decisions the fun really started.
Of course, Boskin is concerned that the Obama administration is hurting investors by producing cooked numbers. But as we have pointed out previously American investor participation in stock markets is likely the result of central banking monetary inflation. The massive surges of printed money distort the economy and turn every technological advance into a huge boom/bust cycle with commensurate opportunities for the lucky few to become millionaires several times over. The false excitement ginned-up by central banking money flows has tempted millions into stock markets (especially in America) where they first may make profits as the boom winds its way to a conclusion and then give them back and more as the bust begins.
Boskin would be clearer if he put the current difficulties that the US government has in telling the truth into proper context. He could start by explaining that there was an Anglo-American power elite that has been intent on undermining the Western middle class for purposes of wealth and control. The power elite has continually attacked the middle class over the past century and more by using vast social promotions that frighten people into giving up their freedoms to authoritarian institutions that promise safety from the promotion du jour. Some of these promotions are over-population, the war on terror, the financial crisis and of course global warming. But there are dozens and dozens. In each instance, global problems are proclaimed and in some sense aggravated if possible by those involved with the promotions. The solution is always a government one.
NOTED: Have You Seen this Man? An "Aged" Osama Bin Laden With Gray Hair, No Beard … FBI Forensic Artists Produce Enhanced Mug Shot Photos of Top Terrorists … Using sophisticated digital enhancement techniques, the FBI today published "aged progressed" mug shots of Osama bin Laden and 17 other top terrorists wanted by the U.S. – ABC News (Ed Note: And so the promotion continues. Apparently many in American or British intel will tell you in a whisper that Bin Laden has been dead for years and that the "tapes" that appear regularly from him on various occasions – usually during Western political campaigns – are all compilations of pre-9/11 footage with false audio. But that doesn't stop the FBI from continuing to present America's favorite bogeyman and his merry Al Qaeda crew – an Al Qaeda that, according to BBC reports never existed. The West seems to be at war – so far – with the Taliban, with Sunni and Shia religious sects and most of all with 40 million resolutely independent Pashtun Muslims. For some reason Western mainstream media seems reluctant to make this clear.)
It is disingenuous from our point of view to pick apart the Obama administration and criticize its behaviors as if the problems in America began with Obama. The problems in America – the institutionalized dishonesty and monetary propaganda go back 100 to 200 years, or even longer, depending on how you look at it – even to the formation of the Constitution itself. But by offering up American difficulties one at a time in a serial format, people can be made to feel that the problems are current and the solutions may be recently political. The solutions, in fact, are only political in a negative sense. Western economies generally need to be disengaged from larger political processes and freer markets need to be reintroduced. This will likely not happen voluntarily but only during a significant collapse.
