Wednesday, April 05, 2006

New game: "Federal agency or Sanford appointee?"

Here’s a fun new game called “Federal agency or Sanford appointee?”, where Gervais gives you economics news and it's up to you, the reader, to determine the source of the news: either a federal agency or a Sanford appointee.

To make it easy, we'll stick with news items from the last eight days. Make sure you don’t peek at the answers - you will be graded.

Here goes... Who said it - a federal agency or a Sanford appointee?

1. “SC 48th in nation in unemployment”

2.
“The South Carolina Economy has a Great Story to Tell”

3.
“SC 43rd in nation in per capita income”

4.
“Legislation obscures strong economy in South Carolina”

Answers:

1. Federal Agency (Bureau of Labor Statistics, State Unemployment Summary 3/30/06)
2. Sanford Appointee (Joe Taylor, Greenville News guest column 4/4/06)
3. Federal Agency (Bureau of Economic Analysis, State Personal Income 3/28/06)
4. Sanford Appointee (John Rainey, Greenville News guest column 3/29/06)

How did you do?

4 out of 4: Perfect score! You have a knack for distinguishing the subtle differences between economics news from federal agencies and Sanford appointees.

3 out of 4: Congratulations! It can be tedious trying to separate federal government economics from Sanford appointee economics, but you are up to the task.

2 out of 4: Great effort! Half of the time, you're able to hone in on the slight disparities between the reports of non-Sanford-appointed federal economists and Sanford-appointed officials.

1 out of 4: Don’t be discouraged! The striking similarities make it nearly impossible to distinguish federal agency economics news from Sanford appointee economics news. Here’s a hint: go with your gut.

0 out of 4: Thanks for playing! Remember, it doesn't matter where you rank against the other players; you are strong and you have a story to tell.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hilarious as always, Gervais!

Anonymous said...

Deal or No Deal same principle....

____________ said...

Gervais,
I agree, hilarious!Your posts continue to be as good as your previous ones! keep it up

RileyWarner said...

Both of these are true:

“SC 43rd in nation in per capita income,” and “The South Carolina Economy has a Great Story to Tell.”

For 40 years our economic development strategy was based on cheap land, cheap labor, and incentives. We didn't dig the hole we're in over night, and we won't dig out over night either.

Two or three years ago, a consensus started to form in the state that we have to do different. Last week in Greenville at InnoVenture (http://innoventurese.com), 100+ corporations, universities, and emerging companies discussed leveraging the world class talent and resources we have in the state to create the future. The energy in the room was electric for two days.

We've got to do different. The numbers don't lie. But we've got hope, and a "great story to tell."