I'm not sure anyone's been "cooking the books" on inflation. There's ample open source data. Would be pretty hard to cover it up, even if the government isn't releasing their own figures.

That being said, they can distort things like unemployment figures by discounting under employment or people who have given up searching.

As for fiscal irresponsibility, both parties are guilty. But at the same time, of the two parties, the Democrats are more fiscally responsible. It's a tired myth that this is not the case but Republicans are a "cut taxes and spend" party. And usually the way they spend is giving more money to the rich while shifting cost burdens to the working class. But since the USD is the global reserve currency, it's actually impossible for the US to not rack up debt.

That being said, debt isn't actually the real problem. The problem is under investment in industries that actually lead to future growth and enable prosperity in the 65th percentile, as opposed to a system that just allows rich people to siphon money from the economy and then tax shelter it. Which is our current system. But I use the term "industries" loosely. I'm not talking about kickbacks for corporations. I'm talking about we need subsidized healthcare and education; we need to invest in more efficient, resilient, and sustainable infrastructure; we need to invest in the industries of the future rather than continuing to subsidize the industries of yesterday.

The US does have a problem of a two party duopoly. And both parties are just the capitalist party, where the Democrats are the moderate wing and the Republicans are the far right wing. Democrats are not a left wing party, nor do they serve the interests of the working class. It's neither through incompetence or indecision that they repeatedly fail to deliver necessary reforms that would actually help the bottom 90%. But then, that goes doubly so for the Republicans. We have to abolish the two party duopoly and get money out of politics. That would be a good start.

this is like kids hiding their failing report cards so they still get a big christmas.

Gee I wonder why? Maybe because he's tanked the economy and everything fucking sucks?

Wonder how business leaders, particularly in retail, are taking this. How are you to navigate your current and future business needs without data?

I feel like, pre-Trump, government denial like this would shake the stock market. The government is saying, "Shit's so bad, we're deliberately hiding it."

And even if the government isn't holding back the data, really is struggling to catch up after the shutdown, that's maybe worse! "This government is such a shit how we can't handle our basic duties."

It's gonna get worse before it gets better.

not just their own!

Nah, it`s poetry.

Oops, unfortunate wording. Although his ideas are a bit like vomit in quality, and tendency to spew at everyone uninvited.

Best response I got so far was in 2013 there was also a government shutdown also back in August Trump claimed the numbers in the job report were "lies".

As I said in another comment Trump sucks so much this is like #2574 of things to mock him for.

Gotta start stocking up on toilet paper now!

Dogs eat their own throw up, its very economical.

Expect more of this as, economically, what he threw up must come back down.

Edit: In the air.

Yeah, that's the real question. This isn't even the weirdest thing Trump has done this week.

Yeah, even the Lehman Brothers swaps don’t expire for another 30 years still.

the dozen different times they’ve changed the inflation metrics to remove/reduce the effect of various “volatile” things that were…becoming to expensive…like food, and housing.

That sounds like you're describing the Consumer Price Index and the changes made to it over time. Those changes make sense to me because at one time the money you'd spend on internet access wasn't included because the items included predate the internet. Once it was accepted that internet is something everyone needs, they changed the metric to include it. Further, all of this is published in the open. You can read all the docs where the decisions were made and when the new metric is reflected in the data.

The changes made to the CPI haven't "remove/reduce"'d the measured inflation number, they've actually increased the measured inflation, which I think we both agree is a more accurate assessment of what American consumers are facing.

This doesn't compare to China in the past or what trump is doing now where they are simply faking numbers or withholding reports altogether.

and that’s before you throw in shit like federal/state subsidies which are used to directly and artificially manipulate the price of goods for consumers, like for gas. americans hate paying more than 4$/gallon for gas, but they effectively pay alot more when consider all the subsidies

That's a much larger conversation that isn't aimed at lying to people or withholding data. Yes, there is a political component where consumers don't like to pay more for gas, but even that isn't the main driver. The main driver is businesses need predictable prices and much of what the US Government (historically) does is making things predictable, not cheap, but predictable. With trump most of this is out the window and he's breaking rules and screwing up the stable predictable environment businesses want and need.

What happened in 2013 to delay that report? This seems really sketchy and I'm not a trump fan, just curious...

Anybody want to take odds on the November report release getting pushed?

the dozen different times they've changed the inflation metrics to remove/reduce the effect of various "volatile" things that were...becoming to expensive...like food, and housing.

and that's before you throw in shit like federal/state subsidies which are used to directly and artificially manipulate the price of goods for consumers, like for gas. americans hate paying more than 4$/gallon for gas, but they effectively pay alot more when consider all the subsidies

we’ve been cooking the numbers for years

Can you point to an example I can look at?

we've been cooking the numbers for years, witholding them is just to finally pop this bubble

dems ratfuck and build the bubble, take a couple carefully chosen social steps forward while ignoring basic growing wealth-gap/QoL shit leading to growing general disillusionment, lose to republicans after purposefully sabotaging themselves, republicans ratfuck more, pop the bubble, take a society couple steps back, dems win after, repeat

Withholding government reports or cooking them to make them more palpable is what we in the USA have accused China of for years.

The Covid Approach: no reports, no problem!

Many Chinese people poured a lot of money - some even their life savings - into property that is now worth much less than they paid or have never been built as the developer went bankrupt.

I couldn’t really care about investors.

These aren't investors. This was how a regular person bought a house. Housing market was so hot, you couldn't buy an existing built home/flat. You had to put all the money down for the purchase of the home prior to it even existing. You're still paying rent or living with your parents at this time. Then the company building your home goes out of business and you have nothing. No home, and you've already spent all the money to buy one. Even worse, you could come up with more money and try again, and again lose all your money and have no home.

In China there are also large social consequences for not having a home of your own. It could very likely mean you cannot have a wife because part of the social rules are you have a house and your new wife will help take care of your aging parents (which is also why parents put up money for their son's house purchase).

...the article literally says rents are down 7% on the whole.

I'd love if rents trended down here. I couldn't really care about investors.

It's unfortunately not so easy. Many Chinese people poured a lot of money - some even their life savings - into property that is now worth much less than they paid or have never been built as the developer went bankrupt.

As one report on Evergrande said already in 2023:

In 2021, just months before the Chinese property giant Evergrande showed the first signs of crisis, Guo Tianran (whose name has been changed on request) and her husband bought an apartment off-plan for their only child from the top-selling developer.

The couple, nearing their 60s, had scrimped to afford the $30,000 (£24,500) down payment on the yet-to-be-built flat. They bit the bullet in pledging to use 75% of their income to pay for the mortgage.

"We wanted to help our son, to give him a place to start out on once he graduates from college," Mrs Guo told the BBC earlier this month. But just months after their purchase, Evergrande's facade began to crack.

In Henan, the central Chinese province where they had bought the home, building work ground to a halt.

"We saw the main frame being built, and suddenly we heard that Evergrande was falling. Then construction stopped last year," she says [...] "When I think about it, I cry," says Mrs Guo about the home she had bought. "It's hard, and I feel sorry for my son and myself."

You'll find more reports than this one, and they are devastating not only for institutional investors but also for retail customers like Mrs. Guo in this report.