There is an old saying, "Where there's smoke, there's fire." The real question is whether we are seeing smoke or fog.
Dr. Mark Perry, University of Michigan - Flint professor of economics points out that the numbers don't seem to support the numbers. I learned a long time ago that macro statistics might be accurate, but not necessarily right. One has to look at issues from a number of perspectives... including through a microscope.
The patient was 99% perfect; it was only the small brain aneurysm that was the problem.Ask a website designer what that 1 incorrect line of code among thousands can mean to the functioning of the site. Ask a logistics manager what one choke point can do to just-in-time deliveries.
The current "credit crisis" is difficult to analyze because we don't know if we are looking at a brain aneurysm or a bad hangover. Wall Street seems to believe the former; Main Street seems to believe the latter. Economists point to statistics and come up with different conclusions among themselves.
And we expect our politicians to make sense?..