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Economic Rebound? What Economic Rebound? An AP writer's year-end wrap-up epitomizes 2009's biased reporting on the economy. Despite Evidence to Contrary, Boston Globe Says MA Economy is 'Generally Improving'. In an October 16, 2009, article in the Boston Globe, staffer Andrea Estes makes the eye-opening assertion that the economy in Massachusetts is "generally improving." Facts and reality suggest otherwise. CBS's Couric Finally Notices Obama's $1.4 Trillion Deficit. Back on October 7, when the Congressional Budget Office reported that the federal deficit had ballooned to a massive $1.4 trillion during President Obama's first year on the job, Katie Couric's CBS Evening News did not tell viewers. But Couric finally caught up to the bad news after the Obama White House put out its final numbers on Friday afternoon [10/16/2009]. Good news reported as bad news: Stimulus cash for weatherization still unspent. Jackie Harpst expected a busy summer at her nonprofit housing agency, as work crews backed by Nebraska's share of $5 billion in federal stimulus money headed out to seal windows and spread insulation. Months after she thought work would begin, not a single window has been caulked. Pace of stimulus spending plummets. Stimulus bill spending has slowed to a trickle, despite President Obama's June order to his Cabinet to speed it up. The average stimulus spending per week has dropped severely, to just $4.2 billion over the past month from $9.7 billion during the prior four months. The government spent $2.9 billion in the week ending Aug. 7. The Editor says... Huh? $4.2 billion in one month is a lot more than $9.7 billion over four months. That's not what I would call a "plummet." How Media Incompetence Leads to Mass Ignorance About the U.S. Economy. Media bias has been detected in other studies, but this series raises an additional possibility — media incompetence in analyzing and explaining how the economy and financial markets work. Time Editor: America Has 'Appetite for Big Government'. Time magazine Managing Editor Richard Stengel told the hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on July 17 [2008] that "there's incredible despair out there and there's a sense that, that something needs to be done and people have kind of an appetite for big government in a way" in America. Stengel was citing a new poll, but the interview did not discuss the fact that the poll also found 80 percent of respondents said they should be responsible for carrying their own financial burdens. Gold and silver Yes, "Amero" No! If you can't see where the U.S. dollar and gold are headed, I'll be crystal clear! The dollar is going in the exact same direction as the Zimbabwe dollar and Mexican peso. Between the last devaluations of the peso, it's lost 99.9%. If you want to know the price of gold in old pesos; you just have to multiply gold by 100,000. With everything that has taken place, many "main-stream" TV commentators believe or want us to believe, that the U.S. dollar is now the currency of choice; a safe haven or flight to quality. Nothing can be further from the truth. Good Economic News Despite Bush Being President. The latest jobs data show something good. So watch the MSM do back-flips to make sure Bush gets none of the credit and all of the blame. Reuters announced, "Jobless claims drop by much more than expected." But for every bit of good news under President Bush, there must come a "but." Reuters made sure to say, in its opening sentence, "but seasonal factors were likely behind this unexpectedly large decline." It's a Recession, Not a 'Catastrophe'. President Obama, writing in The Washington Post, said, "By now, it's clear to everyone that we have inherited an economic crisis as deep and dire as any since the days of the Great Depression." But how would we know if and when this crisis is really more "deep and dire" than others? Many may believe we're in the worst recession since the Great Depression, if only because politicians and the press keep repeating that claim. Spurning the Siren Call of Socialism. The Bush administration's big mistakes were when it increased discretionary and entitlement spending. So, having said that, why would anyone believe that the answer to the financial crisis is more federal spending? Yet oddly, that's exactly the lesson Newsweek draws from today's economic problems. Not quite the 1930s. Now that the epic U.S. presidential race is over, a caffeinated press corps is in withdrawal, so hyperventilating about a new Depression is their new fix. Just to pick one newspaper at random, Toronto's Globe and Mail used the phrase "Great Depression" over 300 times in December alone — or about a dozen times each edition. And that's restrained compared to U.S. cable news shows. Congress' Financial Mess. News media people, often plagued with little understanding, fail miserably in their duty to inform the public. This is particularly evident in their reporting on the current financial meltdown, suggesting it was caused by deregulation and free markets. Now CBS Frets Gas Prices Are Too Low. After spending much of the spring and summer hyping the dire consequences of rising gas prices, CBS on Thursday night [11/13/2008] decided the plummeting cost of gas at the pump is really bad news. Noting that "crude settled at about $58 a barrel today, that's about $90 less than it was in July," fill-in CBS Evening News anchor Harry Smith warned "that comes as a mixed blessing." The Great Media Depression: The economy consumes the nightly newscasts. Broadcast networks report that America's finances are "like a house of cards." ABC, CBS and NBC even hyped similarities to the Great Depression more than 40 times in the first four months of 2008. But that parallel doesn't hold up, especially when analyzing the news of that era. New York Times, Meet The New York Times. In this tale of how Bush wanted to foster home ownership in the United Sates, the Times dismissed exculpatory factors with a wave of the hand, used language implying Bush should somehow have known what virtually no economist in the country professed to know and seemed oblivious to worse miscalculations by Democrats. It could have corrected this latter flaw by visiting its archives, such as a Times story published Sept. 30, 1999, during the Clinton administration. Billion-Dollar Boondoggle. Congress has passed at least a $25-billion bailout of mortgage firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and President Bush has said he will sign it. But the story within the story is how network news ignored six years of concerns about the two companies including billions of dollars in accounting errors, billions more in stock losses and high-profile Democrats deeply involved. Doublespeak and American Socialism: "Mortgage Rates Fall as U.S. Expands Rescue" was the page-one headline in the November 26 Wall Street Journal. The story concerned a promise from federal officials to "pump" another $800 billion into the economy, bringing the grand total of the cost of various bailouts to something over $8 trillion. The term "rescue" is laughable but is used for the obvious purpose of confusing people about the calamity that has befallen our nation. If we're not bankrupt now, we will be someday because we are being "rescued" by the federal government. The Media's Worst Economic Myths of 2008. Is free-market capitalism really at death's door? That's what the media have claimed, beginning with Pulitzer-prize winning columnist Steven Pearlstein's obituary for capitalism Aug. 1. Since then, the claim has been repeated in The Washington Post, on CNBC and CNN. Even controversial filmmaker Michael Moore, reacting to the Wall Street bailouts, claimed capitalism was dead on "Larry King Live." Press May Own a Share in Financial Mess. The shaky house of financial cards that has come tumbling down was erected largely in public view: overextended investment banks, risky practices by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, exotic mortgage instruments that became part of a shadow banking system. But while these were conveyed in incremental stories — and a few whistle-blowing columns — the business press never conveyed a real sense of alarm until institutions began to collapse. McCain Follows Obama Down Socialist Road. It is terrifying to see our financial system crumbling because of corruption on Wall Street, aided and abetted by government policies of too much federal spending, debt, and intervention in the economy. But it is also troubling to see our economic system of free enterprise slipping away as the candidates of both major political parties propose more federal intervention, spending and debt as solutions to these problems. Our media have an obligation to inform the American people that we are moving into a full-blown socialist economy. Despite Press Claims To Contrary, Corporations Do Pay Their Taxes. Many businesses we regard as successful operate on small profit margins. After paying $5.8 billion in taxes in 2005, Wal-Mart earned $11.7 billion — a nice chunk. But those earnings were on revenue of $312 billion, a mere 3.4% net profit margin. Exxon Mobil earned $36 billion in 2005 after paying $23.3 billion in taxes on revenue of $371 billion. Socialism Is Coming to America. The liberal media are, of course, also trying to keep the American people in the dark about what is happening. The Washington Post deceptively calls it a "rescue plan." The "debate" taking place in Washington and the media is being carefully controlled. The Republican Bush Administration supports the plan and Congressional Democrats want to take it further. The Democrats want even more federal involvement in the firms that are being acquired. In other words, it is a question of how much socialism they want. Exactly Wrong, Again. The message blasted at us day after day by the Obama campaign and its public relations machine, otherwise known as mainstream media, is that we are in a recession, we have been for essentially the last eight years, and the US is unique in this because of the failed policies of George W. Bush. We are not in recession. The economy of the last eight years has been fine. And we are doing better than our European know-it-alls who favor an Obama victory. At least that's what the most recent economic data show. Everything You Wanted to Know About the Credit Crisis But Were Afraid to Ask. The headlines scream doom. There are endless references to the economic situation being "the worst since The Great Depression." [ ... But] all you have to do is look around you to see that in terms of daily life, we are not anywhere near The Great Depression. Unemployment is barely about six percent. It was 25 percent at the nadir of The Great Depression. Real per capita incomes adjusted for inflation are at least five times what they were during The Great Depression. Airplanes are full. High-end restaurants are full. Prices are painfully high for food. These are not signs of a Great Depression. 50% say Media Makes Economy Look Worse Than it Really Is. Only 34% of Americans believe the United States has the world's best economy, but 50% believe the media makes economic conditions appear worse than they really are, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. The Great Depression Hoax. I slapped the side of my television in April when economist Joe Stiglitz called this the worst recession "since the Great Depression." ... Never mind that GDP is puttering along in positive terrain. Headlines still scream that we're closing in on 1929, not 2009. Reporters' fuzzy math: When I worked for a governor 30 years ago, activists accused him of "cutting" the welfare budget because he had reduced the outrageous, pie-in-the-sky request by the department head to a reasonable level. The media, fed by activists and the irresponsible department head, played this as a massive cut in welfare spending, even though the increase was double digits. People actually marched on the capitol. Journalists 'lack basic numeracy skills needed to report on business'. Jan Whyatt, a radio journalism tutor at the University of Westminster, called for a compulsory numeracy exam for all journalism students — and argued that financial training should be as important as media law in any journalism course. "In my experience, a lot of journalists are not all that numerate. They don't really feel comfortable with financial news," she said. "The people who recognise and accredit journalism training should strongly consider making it an absolute requirement to pass an exam demonstrating numeracy." Jobless rate at 5-year high. An unexpectedly steep 84,000 U.S. jobs were lost in August and the unemployment rate hit a five-year high of 6.1 percent, fanning worry ahead of November's presidential vote that the economy was near recession. The Editor says... This "5-year high" statistic comes right after the latest increase in the minimum wage. Indeed, the minimum wage is at a record high. 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. Media Ignore Who Gramm Actually Criticized: Them! "The media is a leading indicator of a downturn and it's a lagging indicator of an upturn because you got a human interest story of people losing their jobs," Gramm said. "Misery sells newspapers." As my colleague Scott Whitlock pointed out, the media have played a big role in drumming up negativity and pessimism about the economy. Scaring Us to Death. Recall that during President Carter's last year in office in 1980 what was called the "misery index", which was defined as the sum of the inflation and unemployment rates, was about 22 percent: inflation averaged 14 percent; unemployment was 7.5 percent. Today's inflation just became 5 percent, having been between 1 and 3 percent for a decade, and unemployment is 6.1. 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. Bankrupt "Exploiters": In one of those front-page editorials disguised as "news" stories, the New York Times blames "the lucrative lending practices" of banks and other financial institutions for helping create the current financial crisis of millions of borrowers and of the financial system in general. Bankrupt "Exploiters": Part II. We don't look to arsonists to help put out fires but we do look to politicians to help solve financial crises that they played a major role in creating. How did the government help create the current financial mess? Let me count the ways. 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. 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. 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. Scaring Us to Death. While gasoline prices have skyrocketed, the average worker has to work about two hours to earn enough to purchase 10 gallons. In 1935, it was six hours and in 1950, over two hours. A basket of groceries that took four hours of work in 1950 to purchase now takes 1.7 hours. Annual hours of work have fallen from 1,903 in 1950 to 1,531 today. Real total compensation — wages plus fringe benefits, both adjusted for inflation — have been rising steadily for several generations. 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. New Evidence on Taxes and Income. When all sources of income are included — wages, salaries, realized capital gains, dividends, business income and government benefits — and taxes paid are deducted, households in the lowest income quintile saw a roughly 25% increase in their living standards from 1983 to 2005. This fact alone refutes the notion that the poor are getting poorer. They are not. Back to the Media Bias Page. Jump over to Liberals are lying about the economy. Jump over to The NAFTA Superhighway. Back to the Home page |
