Say Uncle posted on a revision to the official figures relating the start of the Bush recession. I thought it curious they are still revising data from three years ago. Then I read further:
Until now, statisticians at Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis believed the economy did not start shrinking until early 2001. But extensive revisions dating back to 1929, incorporating both improved statistics and changes to definitions, revealed a contraction in gross domestic product, or GDP, in the July-to-September quarter of 2000.
[Emphasis added]
It’s interesting how economists manipulate revise data as they go. I’m not sure what we recently found out about 1929 that we didn’t know in, say, 1999. And why stop at 1929? We can write some exciting new chapters in world economic history by merely tweaking a few definitions and formulas.