Sometimes Silence Is Golden.

Greg Mankiw (a professor of economics at Harvard University) didn’t write a word on his blog -- he just put this graph up:

Note: The shaded area indicates the recession; everything to the right of that is the “recovery.”

Sometimes silence is just flat-ass GOLDEN, Professor Mankiw.

So, I guess this is what Obimbo and the Detroit / Washington Mob meant when they said we’re moving in the right direction.  I also remember a lot of  “we shouldn’t read too much into the data.”

June 2012: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is informative to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/07/06/employment-situation-june 

May 2012: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is helpful to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/06/01/employment-situation-may 

April 2012: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is helpful to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/05/04/employment-situation-april 

March 2012: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, and it is helpful to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/04/06/employment-situation-march 

February 2012: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report; nevertheless, the trend in job market indicators over recent months is an encouraging sign.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/03/09/employment-situation-february 

January 2012: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report; nevertheless, the trend in job market indicators over recent months is an encouraging sign.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/02/03/employment-situation-january 

December 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/06/employment-situation-december

November 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/02/employment-situation-november 

October 2011: “The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and employment estimates are subject to substantial revision. There is no better example than August’s jobs figure, which was initially reported at zero and in the latest revision increased to 104,000. This illustrates why the Administration always stresses it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/11/04/employment-situation-october 

September 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/10/07/employment-situation-september 

August 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/02/employment-situation-august 

July 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/08/05/employment-situation-july 

June 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/07/08/employment-situation-june 

May 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/03/employment-situation-may 

April 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/05/06/employment-situation-april 

March 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/01/employment-situation-march 

February 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/04/employment-situation-february 

January 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/02/04/employment-situation-january) 

December 2010: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/01/07/employment-situation-december  

November 2010: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/12/03/employment-situation-november  

October 2010: “Given the volatility in monthly employment and unemployment data, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/11/05/employment-situation-october  

September 2010: “Given the volatility in the monthly employment and unemployment data, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/08/employment-situation-september 

July 2010: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.  It is essential that we continue our efforts to move in the right direction and replace job losses with robust job gains.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/08/06/employment-situation-july 

August 2010: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/03/employment-situation-august 

June 2010: “As always, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/02/employment-situation-june 

May 2010: “As always, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/06/04/employment-situation-may 

April 2010: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/07/employment-situation-april 

March 2010: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/04/02/employment-situation-march 

January 2010: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/02/05/employment-situation-january 

November 2009: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.”  LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/12/04/employment-situation-november

I’ll admit that I'm not the smartest in math and I have a hard time trying to balance a check book... but even I can look at the graph and tell you that there seems to be a definite pattern here. THEREFORE, it MIGHT BE kinda IMPORTANT, don’t ya think?”

I have another question -- HOW THE HELL DO THESE PEOPLE SLEEP AT NIGHT?!