Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Spin

The World at One, often the arch-critic of government spin, announces, 'Statistics show that the growth in the economy has slowed.' Surely that should be, 'Statistics show that the economy continues to grow.' Or am I missing something?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, it could just mean the economy is still growing but at a slower rate. It's not not growing, but it's doing so less well. That's probably what they mean.

Anonymous said...

I think Steve knew that. Point is it's growing. Which is positive :) Rather than the more negative approach of "it's growing slower than before".

Steve Tilley said...

Thanks you two. Both correct. Who are you by the way?

Martin said...

At this moment, the first derivative of the economy with respect to time is positive, whilst the second derivative of the economy with respect to time is negative.

What I want to know is, what sign/value is the third derivative of the economy with respect to time, and does it have any real meaning?

Steve Tilley said...

Yeah I want to know that too.

Anonymous said...

Martin’s posting caused horrific flashbacks to my Advanced Maths O-level lessons back in 1969!