Governor Walker, we tried to warn you!
Last fall, when you were jumping around like Ed McMahon was at your door because the the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's Coincident Index took a break from spitting out crappy economic news about Wisconsin, we warned you not to believe the "history-making" numbers!
But you had the WMC put out a million dollar ad buy touting the numbers, and sent out a press release breathlessly saying, "Wisconsin’s growth rate over the last three months is the best in 25 years and the state’s ranking is the best in history."
The Philly Fed has now gone back, as more accurate information has become available, and corrected their Coincident Index from showing that Wisconsin as "Ranked #2 in Economic Growth" from June to August of 2013, to a "ranking" that actually puts Wisconsin below the national average for that time period. Let's call it a "Worse-Than-Half-The-Country Ranking".
In other words, it wasn't real. It was all a mirage!
The reality is that the Philly Fed (like every other economic indicator) has "ranked" Wisconsin (I use quatation marks because it's not really a ranking) somewhere near the bottom of the pack, almost every month since Walker has been in office. And this month's "ranking" is no different--see the map.