Experts warn about the 'crumbling infrastructure' of federal government data
16 comments
·March 15, 2025KennyBlanken
IceHegel
In the middle of Covid, the Federal Reserve changed the definition of M2 money supply at the exact moment of the largest increase in the money supply to date for unknown reasons. It made all comparisons between pre- and post-change numbers difficult, probably a coincidence.
USG is an independent organism that is under attack and it is fighting back however it can. Remember, it's always looking out for itself, not for you.
scrollbar
FUD / Citation required. Quick google search reveals you are incorrect (components of M2 shifted, and portions moved between M1 and M2, but M1 is a subset of M2, so there is no significant change to total M2 supply before and after).
Also Federal Reserve is not part of the US Government.
MegaButts
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL
> Before May 2020, M2 consists of M1 plus (1) savings deposits (including money market deposit accounts); (2) small-denomination time deposits (time deposits in amounts of less than $100,000) less individual retirement account (IRA) and Keogh balances at depository institutions; and (3) balances in retail money market funds (MMFs) less IRA and Keogh balances at MMFs.
> Beginning May 2020, M2 consists of M1 plus (1) small-denomination time deposits (time deposits in amounts of less than $100,000) less IRA and Keogh balances at depository institutions; and (2) balances in retail MMFs less IRA and Keogh balances at MMFs. Seasonally adjusted M2 is constructed by summing savings deposits (before May 2020), small-denomination time deposits, and retail MMFs, each seasonally adjusted separately, and adding this result to seasonally adjusted M1.
whatshisface
This might be true for air pollution and preventable diseases, but these quick losses in real wealth are immediately apparent.
hiddencost
Plenty of authoritarian countries cook the books successfully.
The story of Yeltsin visiting an American grocery store comes to mind:
https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/When...
"He told his fellow Russians in his entourage that if their people, who often must wait in line for most goods, saw the conditions of U.S. supermarkets, "there would be a revolution.""
Given how woefully behind American healthcare and education and retirement is, it's quite remarkable Americans don't understand how poor they are.
hattmall
How woefully behind is American Healthcare, Education and retirement exactly though?
whatshisface
It's one thing to say that someone who lives far away isn't as well off as they claim to be and another to say that someone's retirement account hasn't gone down.
ks2048
Reminds me of Trump’s view on Covid testing, “If We Stop Testing, We’d Have Fewer Cases”.
https://www.voanews.com/amp/covid-19-pandemic_trump-if-we-st...
rednafi
[flagged]
smt88
I keep thinking I've heard enough to understand how stupid and incompetent he is, and I keep being freshly surprised.
It is absolutely unbelievable that the richest tech exec in the history of the world and ex-CEO of PayPal doesn't know what SQL is.
KennyBlanken
We should crowdfund someone to follow him around with a giant posterboard of all his various hot takes that ended up being wrong
rednafi
Pretty much all his takes are wrong. What I find most absurd is how he managed to convince everyone that he is a genius. Ashley Vance extolled his wisdom, and so did Tim Urban.
_ink_
No way that's going to fit onto one poster.
joeyvee
[flagged]
Destroying agencies that collect statistics is a "feature", not a bug.
Why deal with unemployment, declining GDP, etc when you can just shut down the agency figuring out how many people are unemployed and where the GDP is going?
Better yet, outsource it to the guy who gave you $10M in campaign donations or bought your crypto coins and then wink-nodded at you, and give him a $50M contract to do something the feds were doing for $20M - and he lies to make you look better. Win-win-win...