Have you ever known someone in your life who talks too much? It’s not that I don’t like “talkers,” heaven knows I have been one of those people; it’s just that sometimes talkers (me) get on my nerves. Yes, I can “bug” myself, but that is not my point here. No, sometimes I think the government talks too much, and I think it would be better for the market if the government simply stopped talking so much.
For example, why on earth is it so important to give a month-to-month report on just about everything in the economy? Given the report below, we now have had three separate yet different reports on the GDP growth rate for the fourth quarter.
The economy grew more quickly than previously estimated in the fourth quarter as businesses maintained fairly solid spending and restocked shelves to meet rising demand, while corporate profits increased 3.3 percent, a government report showed on Friday. Gross domestic product growth was revised up to an annualized rate of 3.1 percent, the Commerce Department said in its final estimate, close to its initial estimate of 3.2 percent published two months ago and up from its tally of 2.8 percent made in February.
Mind you, I like information, and I believe the more informed we are, the better decisions we make. But hey, at some point, if the information ain’t right, zip it! If you can’t get it right the first time, wait until you have it right before opening the lips and spewing. It doesn’t help anyone if the information you give out today is going to change next month, and the next month after that. Did you ever hear the fable about “The Boy Who Cried Wolf?” Yeh, that’s right. Who’s gonna believe you if you keep on crying “Wolf!”
Yes, I have appoint here, other than telling our government to snap its trap. To answer my own question above – the market believes what the government says every month, unfortunately. In fact, it is common to see the market running for the hills when it hears “Wolf,” and it is common to see the market buying up everything in sight when it hears the opposite of “Wolf.” What is that, by the way – “Grass!?” Okay, never mind. My point is this – wouldn’t it be better for everyone, and I do mean everyone, if we got away from this notion that we need to know every little thing, and we need to know it now?
Our culture of immediacy is not healthy. Both corporations and the government would better serve themselves, the market, and by extension us if they started putting this information out quarterly. Not only would it take pressure off everyone (politicians and CEOs) to “get something out,” but it would also keep the market on a more even keel. Heck, it might even make both government and corporate reporting more accurate and more reliable. Heck, it might even reduce the impulse to “fudge the numbers.” Wow! Wouldn’t that be nice for a change – information that is accurate and reliable (yeh, “unfudged”)? I know, I know, getting a yapper to stop yapping is, well, impossible (I know this personally). A fella can dream, though, can’t he?
Trade in the day – Invest in your life …
