GEORGE WILL, MATH MAJOR
Did conservative pundit George Will flunk math in school? This has to be one of the all time mathematical boners:
In the 102 quarters since Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts went into effect more than 25 years ago, there have been 96 quarters of growth. Since the Bush tax cuts and the current expansion began, the economy’s growth has averaged 3 percent per quarter and more than 8 million jobs have been created. The deficit as a percentage of GDP is below the post-World War II average.
I’m pretty sure we would have heard if the economy was really growing at more than 12.55% per year.
Is our pundits learning yet?
4 Responses to “GEORGE WILL, MATH MAJOR”
 Comment by lori June 10th, 2007 at 7:45 pm |
You said boner. In a post about George Will. Made me laugh. |
 Comment by Daryl Cobranchi June 10th, 2007 at 8:38 pm |
Well, he is a tool. |
 Comment by JJ Ross June 11th, 2007 at 9:26 am |
Not from any desire to defend this individual, merely thinking about where this error lies, seems to me it’s in fuzzy wording rather than fuzzy math. He surely s (but didn’t state clearly) the per-quarter average grew at an “annualized rate” of 3%? |
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Comment by Daryl Cobranchi June 11th, 2007 at 9:55 am |
OK- so he failed English, too. 🙂 I honestly don’t know. The government reports GDP numbers each quarter. From Will’s column I can’t decide if he really doesn’t realize that when the government reports that the economy grew 0.6% in the first 3 months of 2007, that that means that it grew at that rate annualized. |