Saturday, October 9, 2010

Top Story on the Drudge Report -- Above the Photo and on the Left

Prominent spot on the Drudge Report: headline -- "N Dakota first state to move from recession to expansion..."

It won't be there long. The Drudge Report usually updates every few hours, sometimes more often.

North Dakota is the first state to emerge from the recession to expansion. (same link)

I don't want to sound catty, but did North Dakota participate in the recession?

6 comments:

  1. This recession was not noticed by the residents of South West ND. i know because i live there.. in fact the local bowman paper article of yesterday indicates the Taxable sales and purchases of Bowman county in 2nd quarter of 2009 was $ 9,701,979. The 2nd quarter of 2010 taxable sale in Bowman county was up 29.3 % to $ 12,546,732.

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  2. Thanks. There's an old adage about statistics and lies.

    I think a big reason North Dakota did not get hit as hard was the conservative nature of its citizens: they did not get sucked into the housing bubble -- maybe a bit in the eastern part of the state but certainly nothing compared to other parts of the country.

    One has to be careful when generalizing or stereotyping, but I like to think "values" have something to do with how things work out.

    When I'm out in California, one is inundated with all the wonderful ways to spend money on entertainment and how one needs lots of money to enjoy "California way of life." In North Dakota, it seems people have a better appreciation for value of money. For those outside of North Dakota, don't take this out of context.

    There is some evidence in my home town, Williston, of some conspicuous spending with some huge McMansions, but they, too, are far and few between.

    But even these McMansions are nicely done, and fit well into the setting, some overlooking the river but not surrounded by high-rise fences, or security gates. I am not aware of much "keeping up with the Joneses" or in this case, "keeping up with Ole and Lena."

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  3. Clarence Iverson, a mineral rights owner in North Dakota's first successful well, moved to California. I believe he eventually returned.

    Hess342

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  4. Interesting. Not surprising. I enjoy visiting California but I can't see myself retiring or ending up there on a permanent basis.

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  5. I'm unable to find, in any of the Drudge links, or in my general search, any citation referring to North Dakota having been in recession. The only, apparently incorrect, citation I find is in the Drudge headline itself.

    Hess342

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  6. How interesting. Drudge has a way of "stretching." I do that, too, on occasion, stretch the facts a bit. But with agriculture, oil, and two large military bases, it's hard to see that ND GDP (if that's what it would be called) would actually decrease that much to put ND into a recession.

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