Pathetic December New Building Permits Result Described as 'Surge' in CNN E-Mail Alert
The folks in the establishment press are looking for any sign of upward movement in the housing market, especially in new home construction, that they can portray positively as the beginning of a general recovery.
That desperate search explains the content of the following e-mail alert from CNN which arrived in my inbox this morning:
Some "surge." As seen here (scroll to the very end of the report), the actual, i.e., not seasonally adjusted, number of building permits issued in December was 47,700. That's fewer than the 49,200 permits issued in December 2009, and the second-lowest December in the 52 years the Census Bureau has been tracking permits.
Seasonal calculations like the one leading to the "surge" CNN cited are suspect because there has been a significant deviation from the norm during the most recent two years in housing. Such deviations can distort the results. The reality: Surge, schmurge.
Sadly, e-mails like the one CNN issued have a great deal of undeserved influence, especially among the relatively disengaged, who use such alerts to try to quickly get a handle on what's going on without having to dig around for it. In this case, they've been misled.
I'll have more to say about the disgraceful reporting of Wednesday's housing news, particularly by the Associated Press, tomorrow.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
- Tom Blumer's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
What's honesty if you have an agenda to push?
Submitted by Duff on Thu, 01/20/2011 - 1:06am.
At least it didn't use the term "crosshair"
That 'surge' in building
Submitted by killa37 on Thu, 01/20/2011 - 1:09am.
That 'surge' in building permits (I'm a self-UNemployed building contractor here in Hawaii) is along the same lines as the 'holding steady' unemployment rate, or the 'increase' of hiring over the Christmas (whoops.........sorry!!) holidays. It's language and playing with the numbers, designed to make things look better than they really are - especially to the 'masses' who don't pay attention to reality......................
Dow Jones Newswire overall bleak
Submitted by Boil It Down on Thu, 01/20/2011 - 1:24am.
The Dow Jones Newswire called it a surge also but the thrust of the report was that the "stock futures stayed in the red". There was plenty of bad news to counter the "surge". As for CNN, blowin' sunshine up my skirt don't make the ice melt.
Gov of Hawaii Miraculously Finds a Handwritten Birth Certificate
Submitted by im41 on Thu, 01/20/2011 - 4:53am.
Gov of Hawaii Miraculously Finds a Handwritten Birth Certificate of Obama
From out of nowhere, the Gov. of Hawaii claims he found an archived handwritten birth certificate of Obama.
http://conservativeblogscentral.blogspot.com/2011/01/gov-of-hawaii-mirac...
Yeah, and the story is so
Submitted by killa37 on Thu, 01/20/2011 - 8:36am.
Yeah, and the story is so convoluted that's it's really hard to tell what the little cretin AberCOMMIE said............it's handwritten in 'the archives' or something??? So I guess that phony 'certificate of live birth' that was floating around the internet is the material proof of some 'handwriting' in some 'archives'.....................
AberCOMMIE DID say that 'he know Obama's parents (which I believe, since they were were all here at the same time - I used to see the little hippie cretin rabble-rousing when I was going to UH), and he was here when the baby was born. Well, I was 'here' when the baby was born too............except I'm not sure where 'here' was WHEN the baby was born.
Now Now, stop your worrying
Submitted by jdhawk on Thu, 01/20/2011 - 4:55am.
Now Now, stop your worrying about the economy. duhbama is making jobs his number one priority! He said so. And, I believe him. Don't you? lol
Get Prepared-Morning Joe Giddy!
Submitted by cobokat on Thu, 01/20/2011 - 7:06am.
Morning Joe 1/20/11-6:00am hour. The crew is all giddy about the new NBC/WSJ polls showing BHO on the rise. I thought the WH said they don't pay attention to polls. Oh my gosh!! Arianna Huffington just said these numbers are not sustainable! Are these people for real??!!
Anything to get Ears re-elected!
Submitted by Mary Louise Turner on Thu, 01/20/2011 - 10:32am.
Yep, the make believe media is already working to insure Ears' re-election, between deliberately rigging polls, doctoring economic numbers and trashing potential GOP challengers...Expect this kind of garbage to intensify between now and Election Day 2012.