Coincidentally, Personal Income and Spend Surge Before the Holidays

Personal Consumption As A % of Personal Income:


Investors that use personal income and spending numbers for historical comparisons today prefer government statisticians doing the thinking about the economic world for them. In the commentary, If you don’t like the message conveyed by economic time series, revise it!, I revealed how many of economic time series have been adjusted to maintain the economic illusion. In many cases, there have been multiple adjustments since 2000.

The alteration of personal income and outlays should serve as all illustration of the growing disconnect between actual and statistical economic reality. The size of the distortion will only worsen as the sovereign debt crisis intensifies.

Headline: Personal income, spending higher

With the holiday shopping season just around the corner, both personal income and spending are on the rise, the government said Wednesday.

Personal income rose 0.5% in October, after a revised unchanged rate in September, while spending by individuals ticked up to 0.4% from a revised 0.3% the prior month, according to data released by the Commerce Department.

Source: money.cnn.com