How Wall-Street Hocus-Pocus Inflates S&P 500 Revenues
How Wall-Street Hocus-Pocus Inflates S&P 500 Revenues
by Wolf Richter May 9, 2016
[font color="blue"]But even the well-oiled machine couldnt hide the decline.[/font]
Despite what you might think, theres a difference between our financial markets and casinos in Las Vegas: casinos arent rigged.
In a casino, the odds are officially against you. You know what they are, and you subject yourself to them statistically speaking to lose money
while having a blast.
Wall Street on the other hand has become an ingenious hocus-pocus machine where even the most taken-for-granted and often-cited data points are systematically inflated. Yet this particular trick one of many is perfectly legal. Its how it is supposed to be done. And that makes it even more insidious.
The S&P 500 companies account for about 75% of the US equity market capitalization. So when aggregate revenues of the S&P 500 companies rise or fall, its an important indicator as to what is happening in the US business scene. Its also a gauge of the global economy since many of these companies derive their revenues from around the world. So we pay close attention to it. ................(more)
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/05/09/wall-street-inflates-sp-500-revenue-growth/