Bush Administration Hides More Data, Shuts Down Website Tracking U.S. Economic Indicators

Think Progress:

The U.S. economy is faltering. Family debt is on the rise, benefits are disappearing, the deficit is skyrocketing, and the mortgage crisis has worsened. Conservatives have attempted to deflect attention from the crisis, by blaming the media's negative coverage and insisting the United States is not headed toward a recession, despite what economists are predicting.

The Bush administration's latest move is to simply hide the data. Forbes has awarded EconomicIndicators.gov one of its "Best of the Web" awards. As Forbes explains, the government site provides an invaluable service to the public for accessing U.S. economic data:

This site is maintained by the Economics and Statistics Administration and combines data collected by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, like GDP and net imports and exports, and the Census Bureau, like retail sales and durable goods shipments. The site simply links to the relevant department's Web site. This might not seem like a big deal, but doing it yourself-say, trying to find retail sales data on the Census Bureau's site-is such an exercise in futility that it will convince you why this portal is necessary.

Read the whole story: Think Progress

Comments

[MajorKong]

Sounds like the administration is "creating their own reality" yet again.

[Dilz]

These Scumbags deserve worse than death.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

I say we execute them and then have scientists clone them again so that we can watch the whole thing again.

[ErnestineBass]

Under glass...in the confines of a lab.

[dolphy]

That's a good idea of hell. LOL. But making them immortal to suffer infinite pain is more severe. I don't think hell exists this way if God is as described in the bible.

[antiparanoid]

They're sure scrambling to hide the recession they claim to have inherited. Robber barons sure do make shitty leaders.

[HowietheScreamer]

OF COURSE they are hiding data... we've been in Recession now for about 4 months. That little data point is patently obvious, but when you have Benny Bernanke up on the Hill saying "nope, everything is gonna be hunky dorry" it's obvious that you'd need to hid the bodies.

It'll also be YET ANOTHER nail in the GOP coffin for November. Espeicially with Johnny "Keating 5" McStain running on the "4 more years of Bushies" platform.

[ssaz]

Come on!! I mean REALLY, how freaking stupid do you have to be to vote another repugnican into office after all the charades and out right criminal activity we have seen. How could any citizen, democrat or republican, even consider such a ludicrous decision. I guess the repugnicans would rather see the entire country fall into financial disaster, the health care system completely collapse, millions of citizens get thrown into the streets due to the morgtgage industry collapse, and lose millions of american jobs to China and India rather to keep their philosophical ideology going rather than allow two men or two women to marry. I mean honestly, is this the most important thing to conservatives? Apparently so!

[outnow]

But what about family values? Aren't they voting to make to family more secure by bankrupting the family? Hmmm. Sounds like Karl Marx had a point about religion being used to sedate the masses while their pockets were picked by the very rich. I'd say the problem is with church leaders who get tax breaks and faith-based initiative money and demand tax breaks so that the churches can control charity.

Just a little "economic analysis" of voters and churches behavior. How many pieces of silver crossed their palms to tell their congregations to vote for Republicans?

[ssaz]

Big F&^*king surprise here.. really? The Bush administration is hiding data from the public? Wow, who would have thought? What a corrupt bunch of bastards.

[brooklyncitizen]

"Due to budgetary constraints, the Economic Indicators service http://www.economicindicators.govv) will be discontinued effective March 1, 2008. "

Budgetary constraints as in the US' brokeass shut the site down because they spent our money on an ill advised war?????those budgetary constraints?

[realitytrumpsbull]

Figures don't lie, but liars figure, and I figure that impeachment is 2 years overdue, but the reason it hasn't happened yet is because Congress is afraid to act. Some things supercede any concern for the economy, or Con Game, and for them to clean house they're going to have to let that garbage go.

Fundamentals may not be fun, but they do help identify what SHOULD be happening, here. CAN Congress be 'owned'?

[WIpatriot]

Reminds me of that old joke:
Man-would you sleep with me for a million bucks?
Woman-Sure.
Man-Would you sleep with me for a hundred bucks?
Woman-What kind of woman do you think I am?
Man-We've already establish that, we're just negotiating price.

[Moxo]

Okay, let's be honest here: Who expects a Dem Preisident to REVERSE all these Bush actions??

[FogBelter]

I think ... the state of the Economy being what it is ... Change is coming whether the next President is a Republican or a Democrat, and whether they like it or not.


Over a decade of fraud has put us in the state we are in ... the US Economy and the World Economy are little more than a multi trillion dollar Pyramid scheme that is currently collapsing.


The Next President will be in the same situation as FDR ... make changes that you don't like, or have the changes forced upon you through societal collapse.


We are swimming in a bottomless pit of excrement right now ... and the decisions that are going to be made will be mandatory not optional.


So, in answer to you question ... YES ... change is coming like a runaway locomotive ... and the Economic actions of Presidents back to Reagan are likely to be swept away.

[mari2JJ]

Actually I expect ONE of the Democratic candidates to do just that. In fact, probably both of the ones left will level with the people. But it is so like Bush to try to boonswaggle everyone. He is really so dull and such a liar that he expects to act like everything is fine even when we all know our ship of finances is sinking six inches a minute. But who ever would expect any form of "A to iZzard" honesty out of Bush, as my mom used to say. surely not me and surely not any sensible person would.

[MajorKong]

I'd settle for stopping the bleeding at this point.

[abbiehoffmansghost]

This is the hope that the Democrats have: that the economy totally tanks before the election. It would be better for Democrats as a whole if America sees with certainty that the Republicans have destroyed the economy before the Dems take over and fix it. If it hasn't tanked before the election it will soon after in which case if a Republican is elected it would spell the certain death of their party.

[themodernleader]

The "people's right to know" has become the "government's right to hide". A declining organization becomes secretive as it disseminates information from top down as a tool of enhancing personal and party power.
Information that could be utilized for intelligent decesion making is hidden from public view until constructive decision making becomes impossible. Then only the intervention of charismatic, heroic decision makers can save the Republic. Such decisions requiring indespensible leadership leads on the road to dictatorship and ruin.

[glitzqueen]

Deja-vu. Remember how M3 money supply figures stopped being published, when they started printing obscenely too much?

[ErnestineBass]

Apparently Ernestine is being CENSORED now.

I've left at least four posts on this thread, and there's not a one here.

Didja sell out, too, Arianna?

Or am I just another of those woowoo conspiracy theorists?

[glitzqueen]

Some of my stuff hasn't been appearing lately, either, Ernestine (except on my own profile page). To give the devil his, her or its due, this could be a system glitch. A couple of months ago, I reported several missing posts via the comment-errors link and the material was somehow unearthed and made visible on the appropriate threads within a few hours.

[WIpatriot]

Happening to me, too, E.

I think there's somebody working the afternoons that doesn't like a discouraging word.

[mrcontinental]

Sorry Dubya but you couldn't stop us here no matter how hard you tried. And we would get the info even if we had to "hack" it out of you and post it ourselves. ViVa La Revolution!

[mmckinl]

Instead of cutting the internet cables to Iran they'd better cut the internet cables here at home.

Those Government and Fed Reserve sites are getting ever more lean. The Fed already stopped reporting M3 lest we see the burgeoning money supply that nobody wants to lend or borrow.

[mrcontinental]

They may try it one day but fortunately I still have the satellite system that I purchased in Iraq in storage and I can point it easily. One phone call to the Netherlands and I'm back in business.

[WIpatriot]

They can't do that, mmc, too many business run on it. But if they can get the prefferential traffic bill thru, then there will be too much biz traffic to allow peons to use it.

[Nova16]

If I were the dolt, I'd shut it down too. However, We all know and some feel the effects of the indicators so trying to hide the misery is futile on his part. The indicators indicate that personal and public debt have reached galactic proportions, the deficit is to reach 400 billion dollars with the new "budget", endless war is raping our treasury of over 500 billion dollars and growing, heavy borrowing from China and Japan fuels our reckless spending, the dollar is falling daily, Housing and construction faltering, Mortgage and credit market in freefall, outsourcing, layoffs and unemployment on the rise, energy costs thru the roof, auto industry tanking, loss of 3 million mfg jobs under Bush, Social security and medicare increase rising exponentially, recession or worse looming ahead and lowered consumer confidence, etc. etc. These are just a few of the indicators that may have escaped his scrutiny--I wonder which others he is trying to hide.

[Justinpassing]

Many informed people condemn obfuscation as a childish, but serious character flaw. The bush league has adopted obfuscation as it's mission statement and taken it to par with the infamy of Adolph Hitler.

[mmckinl]

Why am I not surprised ...

Will the MSM report on this ?

Not likely ...