The Bait And Switch Of A Lot Of Economic Numbers

First they give you the shiny number. It might be total economic output. Total job growth. Or some fancy new level of compensation, though at 11 bucks an hour, it wasn't exactly stellar (but still better than nothing I suppose). And you usually have to do some digging to suss out the better perspective.

This may, or may not, have been the actual case with Walmart's recent announcement; one can never be exactly sure, but the result it much same either way; especially as we might not have gotten the last part of this "good news, bad news" situation without some reporters keeping an eye on things.

The essential takeaway here is that you must always be skeptical of any of the economic numbers you hear about in the news; especially when they get touted as something meant to impress you.

Walmart announces raises and bonuses — then closes some stores

See Also:

The 1% grabbed 82% of all wealth created in 2017

Apple's big cash play: A boon for the economy or just good PR?

[Post Note: Some folks, of course, are making a lot of money, and mostly because they already have huge troves of cash with which to invest with. J.V.]

Dow breaches 26,000 mark on robust earnings reports


[Post Note: I've been fighting the flu for the last week so I haven't been as focused as I usually like to be, so apologies for the missing link. I also wanted to make it clear here that this amazing amount of debt puts the lie to the idea that we are in good economic times now for the majority of working people. J.V.]

America's debt load is hitting record — and risky — territory