DATA JUNKIES

Its first day of confusion started way back in 1913 and not much has changed since.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York just sprung on the American populous a new so-called gee-whiz indicator that will give them and supposedly the rest of us peons a real insight into "real time" economic data. Translation: What the hell's really going on.

The new report supposedly will track U.S. growth in the nation's GDP. We can tell by the reaction of the throngs just how thrilled everyone is. This new report will supposedly stick it economic head out of the nation's birth canal this week.

There's just a couple of bumps in that road. New indicators to better foresee are not new and their history for inaccuracy or really revealing anything significant is hardly new either. But a more intriguing problem is the rivalry that seems to be set up between the New York bank and it's sibling in Atlanta.

It appears, too, to be a battle for catchy named newsletters. Since 2014 the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank has been spitting out its GDPNow letter. The New York Fed, the new kid on the block at least in this area, calls it's gem, FRBNY Staff Nowcast. You can see these bureaucrats have been burning much of their midnight creative powers on brilliant names.

As for another problem, as the WSJ reports today, quoting from the website's of both banks: "The New York Fed's Staff Nowcast is estimating tepid first-quarter growth of at 1.1% and the Atlanta Fed's measure is showing a near stall of 0.1%."  It's just a small one percent difference.

GDP reports are not limited to government ones. Private firms and some corporations issue their own to serve clients and others who want to know. One of those want-to-know groups is investors and traders. Conflicting reports like these two are hardly helpful.

So what's one to do? Well, one executive at a private firm in what was most likely a burst of pragmatic thinking says: He told his clients to take an average of the two until further notice. But whatever you do, we hardly thinks he'll want you to call him in the morning.

Are you surprised? Nor should you be surprised how these data-hounded bureaucrats can waste tax payer dollars. In some circles this used to known as a circle jerk. In academia it's called peer-based reviews. Our data junkies are better than yours.