[lbo-talk] employment

[martin]

You can't be naive enough to believe that joe has any notion of 
statistical sampling. He has perhaps a dozen close friends and the 
network formed by their friends, probably to two generations. It's all 
direct experience.

Twenty one highway projects going on around Portland suggests an 
exceptional release of highway funds.

Martin

On Aug 6, 2004, at 12:33 PM, Christian Gregory wrote:


> I guess I really don't buy "populist" critiques of these statistics. 
> If Joe 6-pack doesn't get that the CPI and UE estimates are estimates, 
> go talk to him, b/c of statistical agencies in the world, the BLS has 
> to be counted among the best, by any standard--it's super transparent 
> and user-friendly, and has been very open to change. Does it take a 
> little brain power to figure out exactly what's going on? Yes. So 
> what? That the numbers get used as if they were true on the face of it 
> can hardly be laid at the BLS's doorstep.