CBS Calls 3-Percent Market Drop
'Disastrous'. What's the difference between a stock market "collapse" and a "correction?"
It all depends on which news outlet you watch. Over at the February 27 CBS "Evening News,"
exaggeration was the rule of the day. Anchor Katie Couric called the drop "the ouch heard across the
country." Business reporter Anthony Mason used every strong word he could find to describe the decline
of about 3 percent, from "breathtaking" to "disastrous."
Hardly a Depression.
Yes, growth has slowed, and many people are suffering because of falling home prices and higher food and energy
prices. These are real problems, but watching TV, you'd think we were in a recession so severe it must
be compared to the Great Depression. A study by the Business and Media Institute found that ABC, CBS,
and NBC regularly "hyped similarities to the Great Depression."
Turning
Good News into Bad. With housing prices falling, energy prices climbing and the stock market
on a roller coaster, it's no wonder many Americans are worried about their economic condition. But a
new study on economic mobility in the United States suggests most of us are much better off than our parents
were. … The findings will probably come as news to those Americans who think the middle class and poor are
worse off today, a view Democratic politicians and the media hammer home every chance they get.
Good News Is No news.
Don't Confuse Some N.Y. Times Editorial Writers
With the Facts. When the government announced last week that the federal budget deficit had
fallen to its lowest level in five years -- it was big news. But apparently not big enough to make
a big splash in The New York Times or Washington Post. The New York Times ran a wire story in the
back of the "A" section Friday [10/12/2007]. The Post put a wire story on its Web site Thursday
afternoon and nothing in the paper.
New York Times spins
straw from gold. Last year my daughter graduated from college, got a job and moved into her own
apartment. Those actions contributed to the decline of the median household income in this country.
You see, even though the combined income of my family increased by my daughter's income (not shabby), we were
now two households — divide the total income by two and it's less than it used to be. The
[New York] Times breathlessly reports on this same phenomenon on a national scale today.
ABC
Predicts Suicide Rates Will Rise, Just Like in Great Depression. "Good Morning America" highlighted
how financial matters have Americans so stressed out, their health is literally deteriorating. The segment,
titled "Recession Depression," blamed personal issues on the "troubled" economy. ABC made yet another
comparison between today's economy and the economy during the Great Depression. Only this time, the
reference was used to predict a rise in suicides.
Haven't heard this on TV...
Retail sales jump by largest amount in
6 months. The stimulus checks are working. A big increase in retail sales signaled that people are
spending their rebate payments, helping to ward off a serious economic slump, at least for now.
Media Make Economic Storms Out
of Silver Linings. The American news media declared the U.S. economy in "free fall" as it slowed
in March of 2008. But much economic data hasn't supported that negative view. Recently journalists
have wrung the negatives out of stronger-than-expected numbers for retail sales, consumer spending and economic
growth, as well as lower-than-anticipated job losses. "The job market is crumbling," complained CBS's
Bianca Solorzano on March 3, 2008, despite an unemployment rate of about 4.8 percent.
Oh, the Humanity! The economy is
"going south," the Los Angeles Times reports, and it cites lots of evidence. For one thing, some people
have to take public transportation. … And there are lots of stories like this. Johnny Brown
can't afford premium gas for his "beloved Ford truck"! Antonio Dabu "told his wife they may have to
quit subscribing to HBO"!
Stimulants are harmful to the
economy. The headline in the Los Angeles Times last week was one filled with the hope of bad
things to come: "Public senses an economy going south." Some of us in the newspaper game root for
bad news, and the Times reporters went all the way to Colorado to find poor Shane Covelli, who is about to
lose his car. A Corvette. And he's pulled his son from the ski team. And he no longer takes
his wife out to dinner. Still, his bills exceed his $51,000-a-year income by $1,800 a month. He's
44. Usually, people learn by 44 that if they earn $51,000 a year, they should not spend $70,000 a year.
Tightening the Alligator Belt.
[Betsy Illium] was appalled when she calculated that [her dog's] grooming along with her own weekly hair, nail
and massage appointments; gourmet groceries; restaurant meals and Starbucks coffee cost nearly $2,000 a month.
Now she gets manicures at a less expensive salon, meets her friends at California Pizza Kitchen and sends her
sheets and towels to a laundry service instead of the dry cleaner.
The horror stories continue ...
Ignorance is Bliss,
Also Dangerous. It's interesting to review budgets of persons who're either already in bankruptcy,
considering going there and/or are expecting government aid; I've done that, on numerous occasions. Here is
some of what I have been discouraged to discover. Most of them were living in homes they never were able
to afford. Usually they had at least two motor vehicles, none of which were paid for. They had cable
TV with several monitors, cell phones and computers with high-speed access to the Internet. They dined out
several evenings each week and ordered pizza delivered at least once on most weekends. When they did eat at
home, the avoidably expensive meals were often semi-prepared by the grocery store's delicatessen department or
else they used their new microwave to nuke those awful frozen TV dinners. Beer, soft drinks, bottled water
(even the new "power" drinks) were always available. Children wore $100 sneakers, and other "must-have"
fashions. And the family occasionally bought tickets to movies, sports or other entertainment events.
Un-Super Size Me. If you believe big media, the
economy is in trouble. If you worry about job layoffs and your inability to pay bills, you may be thinking
about voting for Democrats this fall, which is the point of the negative press coverage. Every four years
when a Republican is president, big press outlets carry stories about economic gloom and doom. But is
it true?
The Economy is Fine (Really).
It is hard to imagine any time in history when such rampant pessimism about the economy has existed with so
little evidence of serious trouble.
Why
So Many Americans Believe We Are in a Recession. Court TV founder and media watchdog Steven Brill
once said, "When it comes to arrogance, power and lack of accountability, journalists are probably the only
people on the planet who make lawyers look good."
The 'Recession' Is a Media Myth. During the 2000
election, with Bill Clinton as president, the economy was viewed through rose-colored glasses. According
to polls, voters didn't realize that the country was in a recession. Although the economy started
shrinking in July 2000, most Americans through the entire year thought that the economy was fine. But
over the last half-year, the media and politicians have said we were in a recession even while the economy
was still growing.
Poll: Economy outpaces war on
list of voters' worries. For the first time in more than four years, a majority of Americans,
57 percent, believe the nation is in a recession, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll
released Tuesday [12/11/2007]. The poll's margin of error on that question was plus or minus 4.5
percentage points. The economy is now the biggest issue in the presidential campaign [according to
CNN].
CNN's John Roberts on Energy Business:
On CNN's "American Morning" October 26, Ali Velshi gave a measured report on long-term prices of gas and
oil, but anchor John Roberts wasn't having it. "Are you buying any of this?" Roberts said to Velshi.
Even when Velshi suggested that the higher cost of oil would be an incentive for a move toward alternative
fuels — thus keeping oil averaging $60 per barrel over the longer term — Roberts jumped
to attack business again, saying, "And then they find reasons for those alternatives to be more expensive.
If they can make a buck, they'll make a buck. Bottom line."
Networks Hype New-Homes Decline
as Sign of Woe. CBS, NBC use new home sales data to make the economy look terrible, while
ignoring rise in the majority of the housing market.
Hooverville? Nah, Just Reuterville!
What seems to have happened here is that [Dana] Ford heard about the tent city and went there with the idea of
writing a story about how the housing problem is making people homeless. When she arrived, she found zero
factual evidence to support her thesis, but she was attached to it so she wrote her story anyway, and made the
lack of evidence a throwaway line in paragraph 5. She then rested her story on the prediction of an
"activist" that it is "just a matter of time" before Ford's journalism comes true.
CNN's Wastler Backs $1 Gas Tax
Hike. Gas prices are high, but CNN wants them higher. Lots higher. CNN's Allen Wastler
told viewers April 28 that the government should increase the price with a huge new tax. "Put in a
tax to make it $4 a gallon right now," he urged.
Gassing Up:
Gas prices have again passed $3 a gallon. But Americans should be used to high prices by now — the
mainstream media have been warning them of $4, $5 and even $6 a gallon for more than two years. (Maybe
one day they'll be right.)
Who's
Afraid of Prosperity? Should we worry that the people of China, India and other undeveloped
countries are getting richer? Apparently so, according to the newspapers and the "experts" they
quote. … Predictions about the end of progress have been issued countless times. There is no
reason to think they will be right this time.
ABC, NBC Spin Strong
Housing Numbers Negatively. A new batch of real estate data gave the media a chance
to pull out its recipe for half-baked reporting on the housing market.
What economic
boom? President Bush's job approval rating is the benchmark by which the left measures
his clout — and by contrast, its own. When he is brought low, it means they are having a
good year. This is especially true for the national news media, which can barely refrain
from a collective self-satisfied smirk these days. But here's the funny thing. Nobody
looks at their approval rating.
Top
10 Economic Myths of 2007. (#8) The stock market is trouble, whether it goes up
or down. … One day the stock market can't sustain growth; the next, we're just one drop
away from another crash.
Michigan As The New 'Dust Bowl'? Only
In the Fertile Mind of the Media. Lou Uchitelle of the New York Times has made a career of writing passionately
about the plight of laid-off workers. This is not a challenging journalistic mission. Even at the peak of
economic booms, it is never difficult to find laid-off workers who face difficulties and are delighted to tell reporters
what they think about the boss. Mr. Uchitelle recently penned "The End of the Line as Detroit Workers Know It." For
any reporter determined to find bad news in the labor market, Michigan was definitely the place to be.
Hurricane economics:
When it comes to evaluating the economic impact of hurricane Katrina, two errors are constantly repeated.
The first is the free-lunch fallacy — believing that federally financed reconstruction and relief can
be a net "stimulus" to the national economy. The second is the price-index blunder — confusing
a one-time spike in the relative price of energy with a broad and lasting change in the rate of inflation.
Facts Exempt: Network
News and Taxes: "Network news reports generally portray tax cut proposals as election-year sops
to the wealthy at the expense of the poor. And viewers of the network news probably think there is no
philosophical or economic rationale behind tax cuts, since they are rarely told of one."
TV News Bearish on the
Economy: It seems you can't turn on your TV without hearing a new poll claiming how poorly
Americans feel about the economy. … Yet, despite these claims, the good economic news is almost
overwhelming. The nation pulled out of its brief recession in the fourth quarter of 2001 and has
not experienced a single quarter of negative growth since.
Wealth
and wages: When the Federal Reserve's Survey of Current Finances for 2004 was
released, the leading newspapers naturally indulged their propensity to make the news look
as bad as possible.
Media Twist Economy Into Bad News.
Why are voters so gloomy when the economic reality is so good? One reason may be the fact that the big
broadcast networks have buried the good economic news under an avalanche of bad news stories.
Here is an example of the Associated Press trying to make brisk holiday sales sound as
bad as possible:
Stores Increase Hype
Over Black Friday. Last year [2005], total sales dipped 0.9 percent to $8 billion on
the Friday after Thanksgiving, dampened by deep discounting, from the year-ago period, according to Shopper
Trak RCT Corp., which tracks total sales at more than 45,000 mall-based retail outlets. For the
weekend, total sales rose just 0.4 percent to $16.8 billion.
"Hype"? "Black Friday"? Total sales (for one shopping day) dipped to a
mere $8 billion? Very obviously the AP is trying to turn good news into bad.
Strong Sales Figures from GM,
Ford Go Unnoticed. "Upbeat" sales numbers for General Motors and Ford were announced November 1,
but the news was conspicuously absent from two of the three major evening newscasts. ABC's "World News
Tonight with Charles Gibson" devoted about 20 seconds to the sales increases for the U.S.
automakers. … But the CBS "Evening News" and NBC "Nightly News" chose not to report those figures,
although they had no qualms earlier this year about reporting the industry's bad news.
CNN Is All Wet When It Comes
to Economy. Watching TV can be torture. This close to the election, it's even worse thanks
to TV news. For more than a year, the networks told us almost every bit of good economic news was
somehow bad. Now that they feel they have conservatives right where they want them, journalists are
tightening the screws.
To
Every Season There's A Bias. Despite an economic boom that's nothing short of amazing, especially given the obstacles it's had to
overcome, many Americans still think we're on the verge of recession. Or at least that's what some polls
say. Why the disconnect? We keep scratching our heads. Beyond the grumbling over gas prices
and some concern about what lies ahead in the war on terror, the only thing we can come up with is the
unremittingly negative coverage the economy gets in the mainstream media.
Reporting
on the economy is worse than the economy. From January through March 2006, the economy grew at
a rate of 5.6 percent — higher than any in the last two-and-a-half years. Despite recent
inflation scares, inflation remains low, at a 2.1 percent core rate. Unemployment, at
4.6 percent, represents a lower rate than the average during the '60s, '70s, '80s and the '90s.
Since August 2003, the economy has created more than 5.3 million jobs.
Media polls as
instruments of propaganda. The MSM's relentless propagation of Democrat-generated
dezinformatsia has portrayed Operation Iraqi Freedom as a quagmire, the booming economy as an
unjust bust and the President as a lawless spy and has even suggested that George Bush is at
fault for high fuel prices. All this certainly has taken its toll in the polls. These
polls become self-fulfilling when the MSM incessantly pushes a particular perspective, polls the
indoctrinated masses in search of that perspective and then reports the results as "news."
Good Economy, Bad Polls, What Gives?
President Bush's political opponents are always available and willing to poor-mouth the economy. When he
first entered Washington, all the talk was of recession. That ended quickly, but Democrats clutched on to
the budget deficit, caused of course by President Bush's tax cuts "for the rich." Then it was
unemployment; the worst economy since Hoover, they told us. But the jobs situation improved during the
2004 campaign, so the "disappearing middle class" became the freak-out du jour.
One
Economy, Two Spins. Economic conditions portrayed as positive during the
Clinton administration are presented as negative for Bush. The media have consistently
criticized the Bush record, minimizing 13 straight months of positive job creation, more
than 1.5 million new jobs in 2004 and an unemployment rate that dropped from 6.3 percent
to 5.4 percent. In contrast, the media consistently hailed the Clinton record of seven
straight months of positive job creation, more than 2 million jobs in 1996 and an
unemployment rate that dropped from 5.8 percent to 5.2 percent.
Economic
Brainwashing. The record is clear: the economy is strong and getting stronger, as gas
prices come down dramatically. There have been four years of robust economic growth. But this is
a record that has gotten the Bush Administration in trouble. Why? The problem is the perception of
what's going on, courtesy of the major media. Even though the latest numbers show unemployment at
only 4.7 percent, an annual inflation rate of only 3.8 percent, and average hourly earnings up, a
September Wall Street Journal poll finds 57 percent of the people somewhat or very dissatisfied with
the economy.
Give 'em that liberal
media bias. "CBS Evening News" team anchor Katie Couric and reporter Anthony Mason captured the
Tin Foil Hat Award for Crazy Conspiracy Theories with a report from the Oct. 16, broadcast.
Couric: "Gas is the lowest it's been all year, a nationwide average of $2.23 a gallon. It hasn't
been that low since last Christmas. But is this an election-year present from President Bush to fellow
Republicans?" Mason: "Gas started going down just as the fall campaign started heating up.
Coincidence? Some drivers don't think so." (The camera zoomed in on a bumper sticker, "GOP:
Grand Oil Party.") Man in a car: "And I think it's basically a ploy to sort of get the American
people to think, well, the economy is going good, let's vote Republican."
ABC & CBS Ignore Fall in Unemployment Rate to Lowest
Since 9/11. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday [2/3/2006] that the
unemployment rate for January fell by 0.2 percent from December, down to 4.7 percent,
the lowest level since July of 2001. But viewers of ABC's World News Tonight and CBS Evening
News on Friday night heard nothing about it ….
The silence of the
good news. Economic pessimists have had a field day ever since GDP was reported a little
over a week ago at only 1.1 percent for the fourth quarter. But the latest jobs report
released on Friday blew them out of the water. Including revisions, January employment is a
huge 317,000 above the initial December level. In fact, over the past three months, non-farm
payrolls have increased an average 229,000 per month. That's explosive.
Political
demagoguery: Our unemployment rate, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
put at 5.4 percent in September, is one of the lowest in the world and in our history. France's
unemployment rate is 9.4 percent, Germany's 9.9 percent and Italy's 8.6 percent. Our
Canadian neighbor's is 6.6 percent. The only reason for today's hysteria over jobs is
because it is an election year, and one of the ways politicians gain power is to create
fear among the electorate. The next time you hear a politician whining about our "awful"
job climate, ask him which European country we should look to for guidance in job creation.
$2 Trillion on Foreign Aid. "After
fifty years and more than $2 trillion in aid, the West has strikingly little to show for its efforts in
alleviating poverty." This was the blurb advertising an April 25 event at the American Enterprise
Institute entitled, "Why Foreign Aid Has Failed-And How to Fix It." However, the Los Angeles Times on
April 13 ran an editorial accusing the U.S. of being stingy in dispersing foreign aid. For the
Times, $2 trillion still isn't enough.
End Budget
Obesity. If the polls are telling us things are so bad, why is the stock market telling
us things are so good? Opinion poll after opinion poll reveals just how unhappy people are with
President Bush, the economy, the war in Iraq, and the general direction of America. At the same
time broad stock averages are hitting five-year highs. So who should you trust, forward-looking
stock markets or backward-looking polls?
CNN Spends 2005 Telling People They're Going
Backwards. Regardless of the continuous stream of positive economic news, CNN financial
reports were normally quite bearish all year, in particular asserting that wages weren't keeping up with
inflation, causing the average worker to lose ground financially.
With Minimum Wage on State
Ballots, PBS Pushes Increases. Minimum wage increases will be on the ballot in six states on
November 7. PBS's "Now" took the opportunity to push for broad increases on its October 27
edition, showcasing worker Melone Peyton, who doesn't even earn minimum wage. Conveniently, David
Brancaccio's show left out conservative voices that might have contextualized Peyton's
situation — and added facts about the effects of a minimum wage increase.
Beware
the Predatory "Rich"? By the liberal media's standards, the goal must not be how
best to stimulate the economy, but how to strike the best pose as the champion of the little
guy, regardless of its economic effect.
The Economic Spin
Cycle: I never cease to be amazed by the ability of liberals to twist facts to suit their
needs. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with economic principles could see through the attempts of
the liberal left to blame President Bush for an economy inherited from Bill Clinton. Apparently most
media types do not possess even a rudimentary understanding of how our economy works.
The Media's Dangerous
Obsession. The media and academia are continuously obsessed with "gaps" and "disparities" in
income. As one talk show host put it, "It makes no sense" that a corporate executive makes over
$50 million a year. Ninety-nine percent of all the things that happen in this world "make no
sense" to any given individual. Do you understand how your automobile's transmission works? Could
you repair it if something went wrong? Do you understand how aspirin stops headaches? How to make
yogurt?
Here is what they're not telling you:
14,000.
Less than five years after a recession and 9/11 combined to sink the Dow to the 7,700 range, the index crossed
14,000 yesterday [7/17/2007], a record high, before closing at 13,971. It's up 12 percent for the year. Plus,
the nation's economy is so strong that tax revenues have been pouring in, helping to cut the projected
'07 deficit to $205 billion, less than half what it was three years ago.
Jobs growth calms US recession
fears. The US economy created more jobs last month than even the most optimistic Wall Street economists
were forecasting, making the Federal Reserve less likely to cut interest rates again this year. Employers
added 166,000 staff to payrolls, almost double the number expected, while the unemployment rate held steady at
4.7 percent, according to official figures released on Friday [11/02/2007].
Productivity
Surges by 4.9% Rate. Worker productivity surged in the summer at the fastest pace in four years
while wage pressures eased. The Labor Department reported that productivity — the amount of
output per hour of work — jumped at an annual rate of 4.9% in the July-September quarter.
That was double the 2.2% rise in the second quarter and represented the fastest surge in worker efficiency
since 2003.
Success
stories fly under the radar. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave the U.S. economy a clean
bill of health without the usually gloomy caveats. Wall Street remained in the midst of a Bush rally that
was pushing the Dow to new records almost daily, fattening middle-class 401(k)s and IRA pension funds in the
process. The S&P 500 was trading at its highest level in six years. Meantime, oil was falling
into the $57-a-barrel range, signaling cheaper gas prices, and the federal-budget deficit was dropping
sharply….
The Current 'Depression':
The good economic news keeps rolling in. Yesterday's new-jobs estimate for January, at 110,000, was below
Wall Street expectations but it was accompanied by upward revisions of 81,000 jobs for the prior two months.
Those revisions brought the 2006 monthly average up to 187,000 new jobs, or 2.2 million for the year.
Readers will recall that the current expansion was derided right through 2004 as a "jobless recovery." We
now know the economy has created 7.4 million new jobs since mid-2003, as revisions by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics have added hundreds of thousands to its original monthly estimates.
Voter disconnect:
We have ascended from a crippling economic recession. The U.S. economy is robust — at least for
now — with a bull stock market for almost four years. Most who want a job have one.
Interest rates are still historically low, despite recent hikes. On this stage, and under increasingly mixed
reviews, the Bush White House has stumbled along with dramatic cry after cry about this or that "catastrophe."
Take illegal immigration. It's been rampant (and illegal!) for years. Now suddenly, television tells
us that it's an urgent matter.
We really are better off. As
economist Stephen Moore, author of "It's Getting Better All the Time," puts it, "These are the safest times ever to have
lived on the earth." Not that you'd know that from watching TV.
The Facts Show Increase of Jobs
Under Bush: The media and Democrats keep repeating it over and over: "2.3 million jobs
lost" since President Bush took office. His could be the worst job record since before
World War II, they claim. One little problem: It's not true.
Inflation has the best showing in three
years. The Labor Department reported Thursday [1/18/2007] that consumer prices rose by
2.5 percent in 2006, the best showing since prices had increased by just 1.9 percent in
2003. The improvement came in spite of the fact that consumer prices jumped 0.5 percent in
December, as gasoline prices staged a momentary rebound.
167,000 Jobs
Added to Payrolls in December. Employers stepped up hiring last month, boosting payrolls by a
healthy 167,000 and keeping the unemployment rate steady at a still historically low 4.5 percent.
Workers' wages grew briskly. The latest snapshot of the nation's employment climate, released Friday
[1/5/2007] by the Labor Department, showed that the jobs market ended 2006 on a strong note and provided
fresh evidence that the troubled housing and automotive sectors aren't dragging down employment across
the country.
Jobless Claims
Fall by Most in 6 Months. The number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment
benefits dropped last week by the largest amount in six months, relieving worries about a big jump in claims
in the previous week.
Unemployment
rate lowest in nearly 5-1/2 years. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to a 5½ year low in
October as 92,000 jobs were added and hiring in the two prior months was revised up, the government said
on Friday [11/3/2006], leading financial markets to slash bets on interest-rate cuts.
Florida
unemployment rate hits 30-year low. Florida's unemployment rate dropped
to 3.3 percent in December, the lowest in 30 years, and it posted the fastest
job growth among the nation's 10 most populous states last year, the state's labor agency
announced on Friday [1/20/2006].
Unemployment and
Inflation: As a rough approximation, about one in twenty workers (or five percent) is
likely to be a victim of … inevitable frictional and structural issues at any point in time. Thus,
the unemployment rate will be at about five percent even in a fully employed U.S. economy. Economists
often term this five percent as the natural rate of unemployment.
Unemployment rate lowest
since 2001. The unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in nearly five years in January,
the government reported Friday [2/3/2006], as employers added a respectable 193,000 jobs to payrolls and
paychecks increased more than expected.
5.0 Percent Unemployment: Better Than
Good. The unemployment rate keeps trending down below expectations and now stands
at 5.0 percent. While conventional wisdom is stuck in the mindset that the U.S. economy
is weak, the data continue to say otherwise.
The Wal-Mart
Model: The American economy continues to surge ahead, though you won't read
much about it in mainstream media. Economic growth in the third quarter was
4.1 percent — despite Hurricane Katrina! — the 10th consecutive quarter with
growth over 3 percent. Unemployment is 5.0 percent — lower than the average
for the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s. Since April 2003 the economy has created a net 5.1 million
new jobs. Core inflation is only 2.1 percent, and gas prices, which surged
above $3 a gallon after Katrina, are now down around $2. Productivity growth for
the five-year period of 2000-2005 is 3.4 percent, the highest of any five-year
period in 50 years.
The silence
of the Bush Boom: In view of the ravages of the 2000-02 stock market plunge,
the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and skyrocketing energy prices, the Bush boom stands as even
more of a great achievement. But still he gets no credit.
Income
Rises, Poverty Falls for Black Families in the 1990s: Despite the economic downturn, black
families nationwide are better off than they were in the mid-1990s, according to figures released Friday
[4/25/2003] by the U.S. Census Bureau.
What does Obama's victory mean?
Today, if black Americans' gross domestic product were measured separately, it would be the 16th-richest
country in the world. Nearly 80 percent of blacks live above the poverty level, contrasted with
65 percent 40 years ago. The greater percentage of blacks live either middle-class or better
lives. The employment rate for married black men equals the employment rate for married white men.
The average black woman with a college degree makes more money than the average white woman with a college
degree. The highest percentage of blacks in American history — 46 percent —
own their homes.
U.S. retail sales shot higher in November.
Consumers put aside worries about the weak economy in November to storm into the shopping malls, pushing
up retail sales by the largest amount in six months. The Commerce Department reported Thursday
[12/13/2007] that retail sales surged by 1.2 percent last month, double the gain that
economists had expected.
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