美国粉饰GDP新招：不计入实薪，而只计入承诺薪水

Sadly, we are not making this up: as part of the BEA's latest revision to the way it calculates GDP, the government will no longer count the amount of pension funding that is actually allocated to retirement accounts (counted as wages in the GDP calculation): i.e., an actual cash outlay. Instead, what the Bureau of Economic Analysis will count are corporate promises of how much companies will (may? might?) pay... eventually. The bigger the lie and the promise, the higher the GDP. And presto.

Elliott Management's Paul Singer explains this pathetic adjustment as follows:

We have commented in the past on government statistical fakery and fudges, in the inflation numbers, in employment and long-term budgeting. But recent changes to the national GDP accounts by the Bureau of Economic Analysis may “take the cake.” As part of the revisions, they change the way pension payments are counting in GDP. Previous to the change, when a company paid money into a pension plan, the money was counted as wages in the GDP calculation. After the change, what companies have promised to pay in the future, not what they are actually paying, will be added to GDP. This is fantastic. The bigger the unpayable promise made to unsuspecting retirees (promises that are not fully funded), the more GDP supposedly goes up!
Said otherwise, if US companies promise "infinity", GDP will grow by a comparable amount. At least in a thought experiment... Right?

. . .

What else is there to say?

美国统计局将在最新的统计改革，改变养老金计入GDP的方式，在这以前，养老金是按照个人实际收到的工资计入，而改革后，只有公司承诺预付的薪资才被计入，至于数额以公司口头为准Sadly, we are not making this up: as part of the BEA's latest revision to the way it calculates GDP, the government will no longer count the amount of pension funding that is actually allocated to retirement accounts (counted as wages in the GDP calculation): i.e., an actual cash outlay. Instead, what the Bureau of Economic Analysis will count are corporate promises of how much companies will (may? might?) pay... eventually. The bigger the lie and the promise, the higher the GDP. And presto.

Elliott Management's Paul Singer explains this pathetic adjustment as follows:

We have commented in the past on government statistical fakery and fudges, in the inflation numbers, in employment and long-term budgeting. But recent changes to the national GDP accounts by the Bureau of Economic Analysis may “take the cake.” As part of the revisions, they change the way pension payments are counting in GDP. Previous to the change, when a company paid money into a pension plan, the money was counted as wages in the GDP calculation. After the change, what companies have promised to pay in the future, not what they are actually paying, will be added to GDP. This is fantastic. The bigger the unpayable promise made to unsuspecting retirees (promises that are not fully funded), the more GDP supposedly goes up!
Said otherwise, if US companies promise "infinity", GDP will grow by a comparable amount. At least in a thought experiment... Right?

. . .

What else is there to say?

美国统计局将在最新的统计改革，改变养老金计入GDP的方式，在这以前，养老金是按照个人实际收到的工资计入，而改革后，只有公司承诺预付的薪资才被计入，至于数额以公司口头为准