The Only Good Bureaucrat

The Rest Must Go [The Daily Reckoning] September 28, 2023 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( The Only Good Bureaucrat - So much for all those “excess savings” Americans supposedly have… - How can government statisticians always be so wrong?… - The only good bureaucrat… [Biden’s WAR on The Middle Class…]( No president has sabotaged America’s hardest workers like Joe Biden has. That’s why I’m urging you to watch this urgent presentation. Because Jim Rickards’ legendary financial contact – who he calls ‘The Banker’ – may be the only man who can solve this American Income Crisis. 'The Banker' made $6,492 in 4 days… $10,617 in 6 days… and $13,203 in 2 days… [Click Here To Learn How]( Annapolis, Maryland [Brian Maher] BRIAN MAHER Dear Reader, Today we learn the United States consumer is less formidable than previously imagined. His savings are heavily depleted. He pegs along on rations increasingly lean. Zero Hedge: Instead of the 1.7% unchanged print from the second estimate of Q2 GDP, the final number was a dire 0.8%, a 9-sigma miss to estimates… and the worst quarterly increase since the COVID collapse in Q2 2020. The worst quarterly increase since the COVID collapse in Q2 2020? Kind heaven, no. Have we here the harbinger of recession? We do not know. Yet it is perhaps… as the phrase runs… a “straw in the wind.” We further learn that personal consumption in each quarter since Q1 2022 has endured a subsequent revision — a downward revision — and at times a handsome one. We learn — further yet — that since 2017 United States households saved $1.1 trillion less than previously estimated. “Whatever the reason for the statistical adjustment,” continues Zero Hedge, “one can say goodbye to even the faintest speculation that U.S. households have any excess savings left…” We hazard Zero Hedge is correct. More: Every single monthly payrolls print in 2023 has been revised lower, a 12-sigma probability. “Almost Zero” “Sigma,” in the statistical symbology, equals standard deviation from the mean. Thus a 12-sigma event equals 12 standard deviations from the mean. How likely is a 12-sigma event? ChatGPT was sufficiently kind to answer: The probability of an occurrence at 12 standard deviations above the mean in a normal distribution is extremely low. In fact, it is almost zero. “Almost zero.” Yet here we have a 12-sigma occurrence on our hands. What does this speak for the government “statisticians” who endlessly botch the data… to the point of 12 standard deviations? Very, very little. Concludes Zero Hedge: [This is] virtually impossible unless there was political pressure to massage the data higher initially and then revise it lower when nobody is looking. We are convinced of it. Let us turn our attention toward these politically pressured statisticians… [11/1: The Beginning Of A Brand-New Inflation Surge?]( [Click here for more...]( Inflation officially peaked in June 2022 at 9.1% -- and ever since, it’s come back down to just 3.2%. But if you think the worst of this crisis is over, think again… Will Nov. 1 mark the beginning of a new – and far more serious – inflation surge? [Click Here To Find Out]( Data-Torturers It is these government statisticians who collect, sort, worry, goon, torture and weaponize economic data. It is they who stretch the numbers upon the torture rack and proceed against them in truly barbarous fashion — until the numbers confess. It is they who throw false weights upon scales in support of government policy x or government policy. If the government adds one cup of inflationary water to one cup of whole milk… do you have two cups of milk? Government statisticians will say you do. Yet two cups of watered milk do not constitute two cups of whole milk. They constitute a vast fiction. Yet if the administration requests a vastly exaggerated GDP reading, they will torment the numbers into compliance. If the administration requests a vastly reduced inflation reading, they will torment the numbers into compliance. If the administration requests a vastly reduced unemployment reading… they will torment the numbers into compliance. They would tell you twice two is not four — that it is five, 11 or 343 trillion — if it advanced their interests. In short: We trust government statistics no further than we trust a dog with our dinner. How can they make such heavy weather of the numbers? Implements of Numerical Torture This they accomplish through the aggressive use of “seasonal adjustments” and other such implements of numerical torture. Seasonal adjustments are intended to clarify… to distinguish true signal from distracting noise… to flatten seasonal bumps and variations. Yet in the hands of government number-torturers, they do not clarify. They obfuscate and mislead. They distribute not light but fog. In these hands seasonal adjustments are as authentic as a false set of teeth, a bald man’s toupee or a congressman’s handshake. A seasonal adjustment is — after all — a statistical technique. And statistics in the wrong hands is a gun in the wrong hands. As we have argued previously: That is precisely why the government statistician constitutes a vast menace. For without statistics the government is nothing but thumbs, a plodding doofus. It is a fumbling cyclops speared through its one and only eye. Statistics guide and steer it. [AI Discovers Breakthrough New Cancer Treatment?]( [Click here for more...]( Just recently, scientists in Canada were able to use AI to create a new cancer treatment in less than 30 days! Now, cancer alone is a significant market worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually… Just think about the implications if AI were to find a cure and take over this market. Now take a moment to picture what might happen if AI were to cure other diseases like Alzheimer’s… heart disease… and more – as I fully expect it will… It could be worth trillions of dollars of economic impact – and keep in mind we’re still only talking about one industry. The fact is, AI is the single biggest innovation in the history of humanity. That’s why I believe anyone who invests now – while this new technology is still in its infancy – could see the chance at making generational profits. [Click Here To Learn More]( The “Eyes and Ears” of Government Statistics constitute the “eyes and ears” of government: Explains the late libertarian economist Murray Rothbard: Certainly, only by statistics, can the federal government make even a fitful attempt to plan, regulate, control or reform various industries — or impose central planning… on the entire economic system. If the government received no railroad statistics, for example, how in the world could it even start to regulate railroad rates, finances and other affairs? How could the government impose price controls if it didn’t even know what goods have been sold on the market, and what prices were prevailing? More: Statistics… are the eyes and ears of the interventionists: of the intellectual reformer, the politician and the government bureaucrat. Cut off those eyes and ears, destroy those crucial guidelines to knowledge and the whole threat of government intervention is almost completely eliminated. Indeed… in the absence of labor statistics, how would the government know when to “stimulate” the economy? And how would its central bank plot the famously false Phillips curve? That is, without statistics the government could not “govern” us as it would. The Only Good Bureaucrat And to be governed, noted 19th-century philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: Is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded… registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished… drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed… repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. How do you like it? We might file additional torts… yet we operate on a rather strict word count. Thus we conclude our reflections on the government statistician. We must conclude that this fellow is a scoundrel, a traitor to truth, a menace to American peace and happiness. “The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head,” said the irreplaceable Mencken. Alas, the administrative state — the Deep State if you wish – has stripped the pistol from our hand. It has handed it to the bureaucrat. And he holds it to our head… Regards, [Brian Maher] Brian Maher Managing Editor, The Daily Reckoning [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:feedback@dailyreckoning.com) Editor’s note: Every day, 10,000 people reach retirement age in America. But according to statistics, only 12% of these people actually have enough money to retire. That means 8,800 people leave their retirement dreams behind — every single day. And considering the state of our economy — this problem is only getting worse. Consumer prices are high… markets are unstable… and the U.S. dollar is losing favor. But according to Jim Rickards, you aren’t hopeless… [Jim believes there is ONE thing you can do — right now — to maintain a financial edge.]( And if you do not already have three or four powerful income streams… then we urge you to watch Jim’s most recent presentation. Nearly nine out of 10 Americans do not have enough income right now. Are you one of them? If you are, [this]( may be one way to change that. [Go here for details.]( Thank you for reading The Daily Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:feedback@dailyreckoning.com) [Brian Maher] [Brian Maher]( is the Daily Reckoning's Managing Editor. Before signing on to Agora Financial, he was an independent researcher and writer who covered economics, politics and international affairs. His work has appeared in the Asia Times and other news outlets around the world. He holds a Master's degree in Defense & Strategic Studies. 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