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[Michael Czeiszperger <michael AT czeiszperger.org>]

On Apr 23, 2004, at 10:36 AM, Tony Spencer wrote:

> "February orders were revised sharply upward, as well. Instead of the
> previously reported 2.5 percent gain, the Commerce Department said 
> February
> orders were up 3.8 percent. Orders have risen in three of the last four
> months."

Unless January orders were also up on the same amount, then you haven't 
got a quarter of strong growth.

After what happened with the Bush Administration and the Medicare bill, 
I'm wary of revised figures coming out the Commerce Department in an 
election year:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4571136/

"Rick Foster, the chief actuary for Medicare, says he was told he would 
be fired if he passed along the higher estimates to Congress. 'I'll 
fire him so fast his head will spin,' Thomas Scully, then head of 
Medicare, said last June, according to an aide who has now gone 
public."

Let's hope the Commerce Department is more immune to the affects of 
political appointees.

I like how a republican member of congress is now complaining about how 
he was offered bribes to support the medicare bill:

"A retiring Republican from Michigan, Rep. Nick Smith, even charges 
that supporters of the bill offered him a bribe in the form of 
financial support for the political campaign of his son."

__________________________________________________________________
michael at czeiszperger dot org
Chapel Hill, NC