Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that government spending could be separated from gross domestic product reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn.

Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the U.S. economy’s health.

  • @Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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    1220 days ago

    When your response to being asked “Will this be bad?” is “Don’t worry, we’ll fudge the numbers,” well… Yeah, that’s kind of all the answer anyone needs right there.

  • @Bwoj@lemmy.world
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    720 days ago

    Is this like making Covid go to zero by not counting cases any more? (It’s a rhetorical question, no need to answer)

  • EchoCranium
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    520 days ago

    They probably won’t include all the federal employees being kicked to the curb in the unemployment numbers either.

    • rhythmisaprancer
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      620 days ago

      Unfortunately there is a long history in the US of fudging unemployment numbers. Maybe not common, but it happens. This seems more like the Nixon deal (shocker).