Maven: More GDP Follies

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Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "You must do the thing you think you cannot do." In The Business Press Maven's case, that would mean speaking kindly of the business media's coverage of gross domestic product, but -- look Eleanor, I'm sorry -- their coverage stinks.

Yet Another Revision

Once again this week, we got a major revision of GDP -- a majorly major one. Loyal readers -- really, who isn't? -- know that this is part of a pattern. A pattern that makes The Business Press Maven want to rend his garments and throw himself in a lake.

GDP numbers are originally reported as set fact. A myriad of conclusions are drawn from the initial report, even though the numbers are revised significantly on a regular basis.

Then the revision comes out, and guess what? The business media matter-of-factly report the revision, drawing a whole new myriad of conclusions.

The business media win: They get double the copy from what should be one number and one set of conclusions.

But investors lose. They get lulled into thinking a recession is imminent when one isn't. Or that the economy is starting to overheat when it's not.

You can read some of my past work to see how canyonwide the gap between initial reports and revisions are -- and how misleading those original headlines and articles tend to be to investors merely looking to get a bead on the economy.