As I have often noted, the proliferation of these endless titles in the financial services community has the effect of confusing the investing public and often giving the false impression that there are meaningful standards and regulatory organizations behind such designations.

FORBES: Broker Credentials: What All Those Letters Mean

But as manufacturing accounts for only about one-fifth of total output, the effect is to create the false impression that the whole economy is slowing down.

ECONOMIST: A monetary tug-of-war