Friday, October 03, 2003

Yeah, we'll see. This wouldn't be the first time things have looked up only to go downhill once again.

Also, can someone explain the following quote:

"Good news is when we get gains of 100,000 or 200,000 -- [September's] number could very easily be revised to negative 57,000."

WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN!?!?!. How in the hell does a positive increase of 57,000 become a decrease of 57,000? I do not understand their math, mainly because it isn't math - it's just bullshit. Either 57,000 jobs were added or they weren't - how the fuck can that fact be "revised" so heavily? I take it that the 57K is not an absolute number, and is somehow relative. Otherwise, 57,000 could not become -57,000 based on what happens in other months. Or do they commonly go back and check their work, realizing they forgot to propagate a negative sign? I submit that these numbers, and any other numbers we get from analysts and economists, are total fucking nonsense. They don't even deserve partial credit for this crap.

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