Breaking precedent, White House won't release formal economic projections this summer

[alp227]

Source: The Washington Post

White House officials have decided not to release updated economic projections this summer, opting against publishing forecasts that would almost certainly codify an administration assessment that the coronavirus pandemic has led to a severe economic downturn, according to three people with knowledge of the decision.

The White House is supposed to unveil a federal budget proposal every February and then typically provides a “mid-session review” in July or August with updated projections on economic trends such as unemployment, inflation and economic growth.

Budget experts said they were not aware of any previous White House opting against providing forecasts in this “mid-session review” document in any other year since at least the 1970s.

Two White House officials confirmed the decision had been made not to include the economic projections as part of the mid-session release. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said that the novel coronavirus is causing extreme volatility in the U.S. economy, making it difficult to model economic trends.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/28/white-house-coronavirus-economic-projections/

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Full title that didn't fit: Breaking precedent, White House won’t release formal economic projections this summer that would forecast extent of downturn

[C_U_L8R]

1. Congress, you know what you need to do.

[Guilded Lilly]

2. All respect has been lost for THIS White House. The reputation has been demolished.

[stopbush]

3. That way, tRump can lie all he wants about the economy booming

without worrying that he will be fact checked.

[fleur-de-lisa]

4. Is there any precedent the ShitHole Administration has not broken?

Gotta' hide any data that makes the FAKE pRESIDENT look bad.

[RKP5637]

7. The US doesn't even have a president ... just some asshole that wandered in and

thinks he's a "real" president.

[ScratchCat]

5. I obviously get why Trump would want this

But that doesn't change the fact that the following is true:

the novel coronavirus is causing extreme volatility in the U.S. economy, making it difficult to model economic trends.

We've never seen this before, so all models are based upon hypothesized data. We've already seen many forecasts not come true(22% downturn projected in mortgage applications turned into a 1% increase, nowhere near 2 millions deaths, etc..). I'd probably not want forecasts out there that could be 180 degrees wrong either if I were Prez.

Its not really going to fool anyone anyway.

[thesquanderer]

18. re: "nowhere near 2 millions deaths"

True, but that figure even then was put forth as a worst case scenario, not only based on some worse basic figures, but also based on there being absolutely no mitigation efforts whatsoever, which even they admitted was not a realistic scenario. Then they said things could then be that bad, with most of the deaths occurring in June and July.

[Scarsdale]

6. That decision alone confirms

what we all know, anyway. Times are dire, the economy is in the dumpster, thanks to tRump and his band of frat boys. This entire disaster is on tRump and the enablers who did not expose him for ignoring the epidemic warnings. Many deaths could have been prevented. Jobs could have been saved, along with the economy. Instead we are all in a mess, with lines of hungry people needing food for their families. The gop proves time after time that they are incapable of being leaders. Why vote for them? This mess will have to be cleaned up by a democratic president and others with BRAINS. Of course, the gop will fight against the new president, after letting the orange asshole run the country into the ground.

[sakabatou]

8. I guess the models aren't to Trump's liking?

[fleur-de-lisa]

11. He only likes models that are a "ten."

[empedocles]

9. Someone needs to prepare and release, 'WH formal economic projections' anyway

Complete with bogus WH formal 'headings'

[bucolic_frolic]

10. Informal projections of the Best Economy Ever will continue unabated and unchallenged

By and large, I think voters will understand this sleight-of-hand

[Marthe48]

12. Impeached traitor wrecking ball

You can run, you bastard, but you can't hide.

[NCjack]

13. He thinks that he is helping the markets and his campaign. But, he isn't.

[Lonestarblue]

20. Actually, the FED is helping the markets.

The separate FED stimulus has sent the message to big corporations that they will get all the help they need. According to Bloomberg writers, that’s all investors needed to continue investing in the face of poor economic numbers. There have been many articles recently about why the stock market is not behaving as it usually does in the face of high unemployment and low business profits. In reality, the DOW should probably be a couple thousand points lower than it is. Many analysts believe that stocks are overpriced and need an adjustment that hasn't happened.

The FED needed to act to help avoid recession, but it’s propping up businesses to the extent of trillions of dollars. Is that just to avoid a serious recession, or is that to help Trump? Four out of the five current FED governors were appointed by Trump, and two positions are empty. As with many other institutions that have been politicized—like the DOJ and the Supreme Court—has the FED lost its fabled independence and moved to the side of corporate favoritism?

[flor-de-jasmim]

14. Hopefully there will be political ads on this.

[turbinetree]

15. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity................

privately admitted that, we fucked the country and the country is going to be fucked, but we gave those that need nothing were going to try and give them more to continue the criminality to pack the courts, and he has golfed close to 267 times on the taxpayer dime................what kind of cake do the little people like, could you get back with us.....................because don't want to admit that we have turned the country into shit hole............and its vacation time.............and the 100,000 deaths was and still is on his mind and is still a Hoax, that's why he doesn't wear a mask and he pops malaria drugs.............got it................

[dalton99a]

16. Donald Trump has so much to hide

as usual

[keithbvadu2]

17. Going to take extra time to cook the books.

Going to take extra time to cook the books.

[Javaman]

19. he just kicked the boat away from the dock and we have no paddles.

aka we are on our own why he fiddles.

[stillcool]

21. If you can't read it, it isn't happening

just like if you won't test, you can't count.

[rocktivity]

22. TRANSLATION:

"TO COVER THEIR ASSES POLITICALLY, the White House won't release formal economic projections this summer BECAUSE THEY would forecast the extent of the downturn."


rocktivity

[Progressive Jones]

23. COWARDS! nt

[Retrograde]

24. Trumpspeak for

They don't make Dear Leader look good, so we're going to try to hide them and hope the masses don't notice that they've lost their jobs and can't buy anything

[Bengus81]

25. And...in what was almost the 2nd Great depression Obama announced on Jan 21st 2009

That he was not going to release economic projections for the next six months or more, Trump would probably still be Tweeting about it--or his head would have exploded along with McConnell's.