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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Spinning GDP

Spinning GDP

The White House is claiming the economy grew 3.1 percent last year, but it is spinning the numbers — focusing on a little-used measure to make the economy look a little more robust than it does measured the usual way.

Stimulus Jobs: The Fine Print

The White House announced April 14 that a new report shows that the Recovery Act has been responsible for 2.2 million to 2.8 million jobs through the end of March. As always, we advise reading the fine print.
As we’ve written before, it’s not possible to know what might have happened had the $787 billion economic stimulus bill not been enacted and signed into law more than a year ago, on Feb. 17, 2009. Economists can only estimate.

Obama’s ‘Economic Advisers’

Q: Are three former Fannie Mae executives "economic advisers" to Obama?
A: No, claims made in a chain e-mail are false. Jim Johnson advised on non-economic matters but quit after a week. Franklin Raines says he took a "couple of calls" but was never an adviser. We find no evidence Tim Howard ever had a connection to the Obama campaign.