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Larry Summers Says The Economy Is On The Rebound

Google searchers no longer interested in \"economic depression.\"

By: streiff (Diary)  |  July 18th, 2009 at 07:06 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

We’re out of the economic woods. Things are looking up. Unemployment is rising. Manufacturing is moribund. Foreclosures are at all time highs. Foreigners are getting nervous about our bonds… and currency. But the crisis is over.

How do we know this? The Google Index.

Of all the statistics pouring into the White House every day, top economic adviser Larry Summers highlighted one Friday to make his case that the economic free-fall has ended.

The number of people searching for the term “economic depression” on Google is down to normal levels, Summers said.

Searches for the term were up four-fold when the recession deepened in the earlier part of the year, and the recent shift goes to show consumer confidence is higher, Summers told the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

One of the amazing things about this Administration is the way some really smart people will say disturbingly dumb things to defend it. One is uncertain of their motivation but the phenomenon is undeniable.

I can think of a lot of reasons why searches for “economic depression” might fluctuate that have nothing to do with predictions of the economic condition of the nation. Maybe they remembered the concept after one search? Maybe they’ve been evicted and longer have access to a computer? I can’t imagine there is a significant number of people out there who repeatedly search for “economic depression” because they remain worried about their jobs and being able to pay the mortgage.

Back in 2005 when Larry Summers launched into his ill-fated exposition on why women are inferior to men in math skills (and measuring distance, for that matter), MIT biology professor Nancy Hopkins walked out of his talk later saying that if she hadn’t left, ”I would’ve either blacked out or thrown up.” I know how she feels. Right now I’d know I don’t know whether to crap or go blind and I can’t leave.

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COMMENTS

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  • BlueStateSaint

    Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt, is it?

  • Richard Mullins
  • mustango

    Google trends are obviously strongly influenced by what people read and hear elsewhere. People have to get their ideas on what to search for from somewhere, yes?

    A far more meaningful statistic would be to normalize the “Google Index” of a term against mentions of the term from non-Internet sources, e.g. media sources like, say, Mr. Summers. I think such an analysis would reveal that the decline in Google searches on “economic depression” scaled right down with the media deciding it is no longer to Obama’s political advantage to keep mentioning the term themselves.

    In other words, Summers’s “Google Index” is just another exercise in journalistic navel-gazing, as the media’s narcissistic premise that reality itself is defined by what they choose to report, continues.

  • http://www.fredsnews.com Fred Maidment

    …after all, his little talk back in ’05 was a theoretical discussion that he said at the time he did not believe.

    Asking a question or positing a theory (which is what he was doing) does not indicate belief, and asking such questions should be encouraged–by both sides of any political debate–so that we reach the truth. In the end, the liberals ran him out because asking such questions is politically unacceptable. The answers might violate liberal belief, so the theory should be discounted before even explored.

    And let’s face it: There ARE differences in male and female brain structures and chemistry. Mr. Summers only theorized that those differences might be large enough to explain why fewer women were engineering professors, rather than bias or discrimination.

    - – -

    With that out of the way, this latest example is so bad it doesn’t even sound specious. Apparently, Mr. Summers wants us to think that Google has some kind of divine insight.

    How silly.

  • 6eorge Jetson

    …is dwindling?

    People do have memories. In financial modeling, it’s called path dependency.

  • Scope

    Google Blocks Anti-Obama Blogs-

    http://www.aim.org/don-irvine-blog/google-blocks-anti-obama-blogs/

    Ben Smith at Politico-Google disables anti-Obama blogs-

    http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0608/google_disables_antiobama_blogs.html

    And just to insure it stays that way, appoint a former Google Product Manager, as well as being a former Group Product Manager from Yahoo- Katie Jacobs Stanton-

    http://www.readwriteweb.com/readwritehire/2009/01/obama-hires-silican-valley-exe.php

    As to Summers, what would you expect him to say- Unemployment is at an all time high, and growing with no end in sight. Other countries have cancelled all orders for American made products, and China just cut up our credit cards? You cannot be in the Obama Administration until you pass the lying test- The Course is called – How to become a Lying Liberal, and to start believing your own Lies.

  • http://curiousmojo.blogspot.com/ Patrick McGarry

    I think people are fully caught up on the meaning of economic depression. They get a little more familiar with the concept every time the Dems roll out some new legislation.

  • http://dezignworx-ae.com tsquare

    Is a fool… or a lair.

    Or both as he is working for Obama

  • 6eorge Jetson

    w/ an old suitor that’s been courting you for 40 years

  • johnt

    or maybe they’re desperate.

    • BlueStateSaint

      “Both.”

  • Marcus_Traianus

    “Crack head, “smokin the cheeba”, “old coot”, “delirious”, “failure”.

    I guess Larry searched every reliable source and did not find the answer he wanted.

    He should have looked at the statistics for job search and socialism. My bet is they are way up. What a complete ass.

    • mom2oneson

      I’ll add “how to get food stamps” “food stamp income” “food stamp application”"food bank” “unemployment application”

  • littlel

    Just like the newest Dem. Clown, Al Franken, Larry Summers and the other Obama Economic Team members are clueless about how to grow an Economy. Just as they did under Jimmy (Peanut) Carter, they are terrified and are saying anything, loony or not, to support their position.

    Using Google search results as an Economic Indicator is equal to using 9-11 search results to determine National Security status. Yet this is all they have. As Americans see their wellbeing destroyed, their words are getting more loony.

    Listen to Biden’s “spend (borrowed) money to make money” comment, Obama’s “we have turned the corner”, and Summers “Google Search” words and it is clear they have no idea what to do, so they use all they have — LIES. But why not, that has worked to get them in their jobs all their life–just the American people are living with their lies while they jet-set around the world on our Credit Card-

    We are headed for at least 12% unemployment and underemployment is currently at 16.5%- those combined equal 28.5% –that is not a growing Economy–that is a failed Economy model–And yet they keep using us as
    Co-Signers for their loans (borrowing) and all without out consent–In Banking we call that FRAUD-punishable with Jail Time.

  • ocleverone

    how many people have cut back on the internet to save a few dollars. Or the fact that people have already gotten some answers from Google. Or the fact that Google isn’t the know all to end all.

    Jeez! The guy was an idiot in 2005 and it hasn’t changed.