Now, this is bizarre.

U.S. consumer spending advanced solidly in December as personal income shot up a record 3.7 percent on a big dividend payout by software giant Microsoft Corp., a government report showed Monday.

The Commerce Department said personal income rose 0.6 percent in December when the impact of Microsoft's dividend payment was stripped out.

Are they in a habit of adjusting figures to remove people who work at (or invest in) well paying companies? Why do an average at all if you are going to remove the ones at the top? I wouldn't count on them to adjust January's market performance figures to discount the negative impact of falling drug stocks. What with the scare surrounding Vioxx, Celebrex, and Aleve making a negative impact on the stock market, it wouldn't exactly be fair to continue to use that as an indicator would it?

On a personal note, my income rose 20% last year*. (Mainly because I switched jobs.) I guess some of you guys out there aren't pulling your weight.

*Don't feel too envious. My income has only gone up 16% since 2001, while my cost of living has gone up 300%. (Moving from BFE, Ohio to Washington, D.C.)