Gimmicks in Government Economic Statistics and Gimmicks in Accounting

I always wonder why the Government keeps reporting GDP growth and low inflation and yet, I keep having a hard time getting jobs and I am seeing everything cost a higher % of my paycheck than ever. ( Okay, former paycheck. Now I don't even have a paycheck anymore.)

Now that I had quit my job I have a lot more time watching old TV shows and reading up on the internet, I am not surprised to read on the internet that the Government has been manipulating the formulas of all economic statistics to understate inflation and to overstate economic growth.  According to the following chart published by Shadowstats.com, inflation would have been a few percentages higher if the government hadn't eliminated, since 1990,  certain costs of goods from the formula.

A second chart below pubished by Shadowstats.com shows that economic growth would have been a miserable negative if only the government hadn't tempered with the statistical formula of GDP.

It seems to me that, to keep the music going, and to keep certain people's pockets funded either by their jobs, their clients, their banks, their investors, their voters, gimmicks are frequently used by the government and also certain accountants to fudge the numbers to their advantage. With all these misleading overstatements and understatements everywhere, I can't help wondering if any economists or accountants out there knows how to correctly measure or account for anything anymore?  Why are there always so many gimmicks involved, be it inventory valuation, intangible assets impairment, revenue recognition, and economic data of all sorts. I hope I am just being over cynical due to the fact that I haven't had a new job offer yet.  Otherwise, the world is just too disheartening.

First Day As An Unemployed CPA

One advantage of not having a job anymore is that I can stay up late and do whatever I like, such as blogging.  I'm actually feeling very liberating today and am relieved that I won't have to attend the series of audit planning meetings end of this month like my other colleagues who are still working at my firm.

Today is the first day in my life since I graduated college that I have nowhere to go...  Yes, just plain sitting at home and watching TV shows on Netflix all day long, "The Vampire's Diaries - Season 1".  I hadn't watched any TV since 2008.  Today for the first time, I am watching Season 1 of a hit TV series that began several years ago.   At a time when Vampires were really popular, I was so busy working my butt off in public accounting that I was totally unaware of the buzz about Vampires.  Today, I felt like I had just returned from out of space and started to discover that the world had changed a lot, beginning with TV.  I don't know any of the cast members in "The Vampire's Diaries" at all.

While Vampires suck out blood from people, public accounting sucked out several years of my precious life.  In my opinion, it's worse than being beaten by a Vampire.

Anyway, the TV series is unexpectedly good. I really love it. I am so happy that I now have plenty of time to watch all the episodes.  I'm happy that I'm living again. Happy unemployment everybody!!! For those of you who are still slaving in public accounting, quit your job now and reclaim your life before you literally die of heart attack at your desk (like one of my former co-workers a while back....)

Tick Tock My Public Accounting Clock

I had thrown in my towel last Friday and gave my two weeks' notice.  My original plan was to hang on there until I had a new job offer.  After one year's interviewing and the exhaustion of all my paid vacation days on attending interviews,  I decide that it has got to a point where I feel so bad about waking up to go to work that I feel that I can no longer hang in there anymore.  (I have to say most of my paid vacation days were wasted on worthless headhunting firms, which I have learnt my lesson now to be more skeptical of them.)

I just realize that life is too short for me to spend one extra day, dragging myself to my car and be miserable.  I don't see how my current position at my firm is going to lead me to anywhere less miserable.  Sure, a lot of recruiters advise me to not quit my job until I have another job lined up.  Too bad, I don't have one lined up yet even though I had spent the last year looking for one. I just want my way out now before the audit season kicks in full gear and I will become stuck for another 6 months without time to attend job interviews.

As more work comes my way and more crises tossed to my desk, created by my bosses and the incompetent Controllers of their clients, I feel that it will be harder for me to focus on finding my next public accounting job or to even think about what I need to do with my career.  I feel that one more day hanging on in this firm means only one more day of my life being wasted.  I feel that it's very important for me to surround myself with the right professionals, professionals who are competent, and not complacent.  I have been looking at the people around me in this firm and in this firm's clients, all I see are very incompetent and complacent people with the exception of one of my colleagues, who told me he had been feeling frustrated and was actively looking for a new job too. I just want to leave before he does.  

So I quit.  My days at my fancy and spacious office are now counting down.  I feel relief.  I guess the fear part hasn't kicked in yet.  What about you?  Do you enjoy what you are doing at your job?  Have you ever quit without having another job lined up?

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