February 28, 2005
In Other News, Winter is Cold
Personal Incomes See Biggest Dip in Decade
What a headline. That sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it… They go on to say:
Personal incomes which had been bolstered by a large stock dividend payment in December plunged 2.3 percent in January, the sharpest decline in more than a decade. Consumer spending was flat, the government reported Monday.
The Commerce Department said the sharp January drop in incomes followed a record 3.7 percent jump in incomes in December with both months heavily influenced by a $3 per share dividend payment that computer software giant Microsoft made on Dec. 2.
…
Without the huge $32 billion dividend payment by Microsoft, personal incomes would have shown steadier gains of 0.6 percent in December and 0.5 percent in January.
So basically what they’re saying is, if I get a big bonus or something at work, and the next month my raise kicks in but my check is smaller than my bonus, that’s a huge hit to my personal income, right? Because that’s what happens. Income is at least a percent higher than it was in November, and a one-time bonus in December made the month-to-month number look bad. If I can see “personal income reductions” like that, I’ll take it any time I can get it.
There’s a big difference between factual accuracy and truthfulness. It’s a line Michael Moore doesn’t seem to understand, and whoever wrote this headline has the same problem. What they said is true, month-to-month numbers dropped. But the truth of the numbers shows that the economy is improving each month, and the month-to-month only looks bad because December was so good.
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