Pay no mind to the Alan behind the curtain...

Enrique Diaz-Alvarez enrique at anise.ee.cornell.edu
Tue Sep 28 19:46:12 PDT 1999


When the numbers don't look so hot, you just change them. This New Era stuff is easy!

What the hell is "banking productivity" anyway?

Enrique

--

NEW YORK, Sept 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department is to

unveil on Wednesday changes in how it calculates economic growth, the

Wall Street Journal reported in Wednesday's online edition.

The paper said the department concludes that heavy business investment

in computer software means American economic output has been even

greater in the 1990s than previously estimated.

Making changes to the way software purchases are treated could

increase the official estimate of gross domestic product in 1996 by about

$115 billion, or 1.5 percent, the paper reported, citing a publication by a

unit of the Commerce Department.

The Journal said government economists are also set to announce that

they are sharply raising their estimate of productivity in the banking

industry.

These economists acknowledge that conventional benchmarks have not

adequately recognised the effect of the financial revolution over the past

two decades, the paper said.

The Journal said officials will also describe a change in calculating

household savings, which could mean that the official personal savings

rate is actually positive.

The Commerce had been reporting a negative savings rate, meaning

Americans are spending more than they earn, in recent months.

The paper said the three changes were part of a review of the way the

government measures the economy, which is conducted every five years

by the department's Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The details are in:

http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/an/0899niw/maintext.htm



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