Revised GDP Accounting

Future pension benefits promised by governments and private companies are counted as income. Previously, only cash payments by companies and government agencies into their pension plans counted as income. This change boosted Americans’ savings rate by about 1.5 percentage points in 2011 and 2012 — to 5.6 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively. The government says the change better reflects the retirement plans of those Americans with pensions and is less subject to manipulation than the cash payments. Wow!  The U.S. Ministry of Truth, in a grand fraud that rewrites U.S. economic history and obfuscates declining living standards, will now count PROMISES to pay as economic growth [income]...and expenses as investment.  You couldn't make this stuff up!