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Doesn’t the idiot bother to find stuff out?

It might be said to be the graphical presentation of failure. It’s hard to interpret it any other way.

Well, people who knew some economics might instead say it’s because ONS is the only national statistical authority trying to measure GDP properly. The provision of both education and health care has fallen substantially this year. Everywhere. Only ONS has included the loss of such government provided services in their GDP estimation. Therefore, by design – and probably a good one too – the UK is showing a greater loss of GDP than everywhere else.

Of course, we don’t expect every peep on the street to grasp such details but professors of economics – even visiting ones at a technical college – might be expected to at least tug a forelock to the truth, no?

14 thoughts on “Doesn’t the idiot bother to find stuff out?”

  1. He actually had this pointed out to him in great detail on an earlier blog. He’s just a mendacious cnut.

  2. Horizontal axis: I’d say that, to measurement accuracy, Britain, Spain, and Italy have the same figure for excess deaths. Given that the US’s troubles started a bit later than Europe’s its excess deaths figure might also reach the same number; same for Chile too, perhaps. Belgium remains a mystery.

    P.S. I don’t understand “excess deaths from Covid-19”. I know what “excess deaths” means, but by their nature they are not attributed to any particular cause. I know what “from Covid-19” means – it’s a measure that’s inconsistent over time and location and therefore to be taken with a pinch, or shovelful, of salt. What the combination phrase is meant to mean, God knows. I know, it means that an Arts graduate at the Guardian has written the caption.

    Vertical axis: it’s a forecast, apparently, rather than a fact. Who on earth takes economic forecasts literally?

  3. Where’s Peru on that chart? Or is it off it? Deaths per million from covid-19 probably under-reported as 847 (vs 610 for UK) GDP down 30% https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-20/peru-leads-regional-economic-crash-with-30-2-quarterly-drop
    The figures are not for “excess deaths” that include people dying of other diseases due to the NHS concentrating on Covid-19, but for deaths *with* Covid-19 rather than *from* Covid-19.
    Murphy doesn’t know what “excess deaths” are (Surprise!!).
    Interesting that the number of weekly “excess deaths” have been negative for the last 5 weeks so the cumulative number of “excess deaths” has been shrinking.

  4. Once again I must point out that I am not an advocate of mass murder as much as I hate the scum of socialism. A beating, financial ruination and forced-never-to-return deportation will do for most.

    There are exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

    As to the thread point–the C19 figs are a pack of lies. The economic figures might be correct. Certainly economic disaster is on hand.

  5. …might be expected to at least tug a forelock¹ to the truth

    Yes, subject to both:
    1) Being aware of it
    2) It suiting his narrative of the day

    It is not known when both conditions were last satisfied.
    _________
    ¹ Tim – did you mean ‘lock’ or something else?

  6. @MeissenBison:

    tug (one’s) forelock

    To show excessive deference toward someone in a superior position. An allusion to the former act of pulling one’s frontmost hair in lieu of having a hat to tip.

  7. Excess death are dependant on how good your health service previously was at preserving life. In a country such as Malawi with an adult life expectancy of ~63 years a disease that largely claims people with underlying health issues and/or the elderly will not have a very big pool of high risk victims.

  8. @AndyF

    See also places like Pakistan where just 4% of the population is aged over 65 compared to 18% of the population in the UK.

  9. I have seen that graphic in the Guardian. That might be a more meanigful battleground than Murphy’s blog.

  10. I’m surprised – given his self-imagined indispensability in most areas – Murphy has not, to my knowledge, complained that he was not invited to participate in the SAGE advisory group

  11. Is there a figure for what the GDP drop would be if the ONS hadn’t included the change in government output?

  12. Bloke in North Dorset

    I thought he read the FT, he seems to quote it regularly? Or is he just flicking through and name dropping the odd quote to virtue signal?

    Anyway, there was an FT article doing the rounds on Twitter earlier in the week, or possibly weekend, all the days run together now I’m retired, which explained this in great detail. Furthermore, we know he reads Tom’s blog and it’s been discussed here as well as the other ones.

    So, yes, he’s a “mendacious cnut.”, and a malicious one.

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