2/28/2010 PERMALINK
Ever wonder how state sales tax collections can be way down, but the Feds can report retails sales are up? Here is how bureaucrats cook the books to make their politico bosses look good. Let's say your town has only two general stores, where everyone buys everything. People are so badly off in your town due to the failing economy that they reduce their spending by a massive 40%. Forcing one of your town's two stores out of business. This means the other store get all of your town's business. Giving them a 20% increase from the previous year, although total sales in your town are down by 40%. Well to create those rosy numbers, the federal government only counts same store sales. So when they count your theoretical town above, they will report a 40% drop in sales from the previous year as a 20% increase. And that is just one of numerous accounting tricks being used to conceal the massive failure of the stimulus plan.