Clearly, statistics hide the truth

This is so funny because it's true, no one wants to believe that the economy is getting better:

It's too bad the economy is in such bad shape...
Just think how good the news would be if it were in good shape.

Payroll growth averaged 160,000 per month in 2005; it has averaged 229,000 in the past three months. The drop in the jobless rate in January to the lowest level since April 2001 was a surprise: Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected the unemployment rate to remain at 4.9%.

...
My wife was "discussing" the state of the economy with a liberal friend who was convinced that it was in seriously bad shape. In the end my wife said that it must be "only the numbers" that made it look so good. Her friend agreed.

This reminds me of when John Kerry's stump speeches made it sound like Ohio was on fire and everyone was fleeing or withering away in holes in the ground since they didn't have any jobs or anything to eat. After hearing him speak, I was always surprised to find my electricity still functioning and my cell phone operable.

Anyone who watches the news would have a problem thinking that the economy was in decent, if not good, shape. Of course, you wouldn't know it by the consumer confidence levels or the huge amount of traffic at the malls and shopping centers on a rainy Saturday afternoon in burning Ohio.