Stone Cold Proof That Govt Economic Numbers Are Being Highly ManipulatedMichael Snyder But first, lets talk about the revised GDP number for the first quarter of 2014 that was just released. Initially, they told us that the U.S. economy only shrank by 0.1 percent in Q1. Then that was revised down to a 1.0 percent contraction, and now we are being informed that the economy actually contracted by a whopping 2.9 percent during the first quarter. So what are we actually supposed to believe? Sometimes I almost get the feeling that government bureaucrats are just throwing darts at a dartboard in order to get these numbers. Of course that is not actually true, but how do we know that we can actually trust the numbers that they give to us? Over at shadowstats.com, John Williams publishes alternative economic statistics that he believes are much more realistic than the government numbers. According to his figures, the U.S. economy has actually been continually contracting since 2005. That would mean that we have been in a recession for the last nine years. Could it be possible that he is right and the bureaucrats in Washington D.C. are wrong? Before you answer that question, read the rest of this article. It just might change your thinking a bit. Another number that many have accused of being highly manipulated is the inflation rate. But we dont have to sit around and wonder if that figure is being manipulated. The truth is that even those that work inside the Federal Reserve admit that it is being manipulated. Right now, the Federal Reserve tells us that the inflation rate is sitting at about 2 percent. But according to John Williams, if the inflation rate was calculated the same way that it was in 1990 it would be nearly 6 percent. And if the inflation rate was calculated the same way that it was in 1980 it would be nearly 10 percent. So which number are we supposed to believe? The one that makes us feel the best? And without a doubt, 2 percent inflation sounds a whole lot better than 10 percent inflation does. But anyone that does any grocery shopping knows that we are definitely not in a low inflation environment. For much more on this, please see my previous article entitled Inflation? Only If You Look At Food, Water, Gas, Electricity And Everything Else. Of course the unemployment rate is being manipulated as well. Just consider the following excerpt from a recentNew York Post article The Federal Reserve would have us believe that the unemployment rate in the U.S. has fallen from a peak of 10.0 percent during the recession all the way down to 6.3 percent now. But according to shadowstats.com, the broadest measure of unemployment is well over 20 percent and has kept rising since the end of the last recession. And according to the Federal Reserves own numbers, the percentage of working age Americans with a job has barely increased over the past four years But that is not the story that the government bureaucrats are selling to us. So where does the truth lie? What numbers are we actually supposed to believe? Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. 