More Taxes on Big Oil? No
First quarter profits for American oil companies are jaw dropping. Exxon earned nearly $11 billion, up 69 percent from a year ago. Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's largest oil company, announced it made $8.78 billion in the first quarter, a 60 percent increase over last year. Much of it, but not all, is due to higher gas prices, over which the companies have very little control due to our heavy…
April Unemployment Back Up to 9%; 27th Month Above
The April jobs report showed 244,000 job gains, “surprisingly strong” numbers according to the Kansas City Star. Many national news outlets reported that jobs number as well as the rise in unemployment rate back to 9 percent in their headlines immediately reacting to the news.
CNBC initially suggested that the unemployment rate “ticked” up because of higher participation in the labor force,…
Oil Speculation Is Not the Problem, Government Overregulation of Suppl
Here's a non-rocket science question: If you expect a reduced harvest of wheat, corn, rice or any other commodity some time in the future, what would be the wise thing to do about your consumption today? I bet that the average person would answer: Consume less now so that more will be available in the future.
But how in the world can people be encouraged to consume less now? Enter the futures…
Hide the (Bigger) Declines: Audit Bureau's Newspaper Circ Report Redef
How convenient. Via Editor and Publisher, the newspaper industry's Audit Bureau of Circulations, in issuing its March 31, 2011 circulation figures, tells us we shouldn't try to compare this year's numbers to last year's:
Because of the new and redefined categories of circulation on this FAS-FAX report, ABC recommends not making any direct comparisons of March 2011 data to prior audit periods…
CNN's Holmes: More Divorces Are 'a Sign That the Economy Is Getting Be
Economic growth in the first quarter was an abysmal 1.8 percent. Last week, initial jobless claims increased by 25,000 from the previous week, up to 429,000. The Federal government borrows $188 million an hour, or over $52,000 a second, just to keep up with President Obama's spending demands. Despite almost a trillion dollars for Obama's and the Democratic Congress's stimulus, unemployment…
WH-Banned West Coast Pool Reporter Gave Obama Invaluable Early 2008 As
Yesterday evening (late afternoon West Coast time), Phil Bronstein at the San Francisco Chronicle informed his readers that one of its reporters had been banned by the Obama administration:
The hip, transparent and social media-loving Obama administration is showing its analog roots. And maybe even some hypocrisy highlights.
White House officials have banished one of the best…
NPR Slants Towards Backers of Obama Administration's Kiddie Food Ad Gu
NPR's Ari Shapiro leaned towards supporters of the Obama administration's new "voluntary principles" to limit junk food ads to kids on Thursday's All Things Considered. Shapiro played three sound bites from backers, versus only one from a critic who blasted the proposal: "If the federal government decided to issue voluntary guidelines about what newsmen should say to avoid inflaming the public…
'Confused' Chuck Todd: Don't Blame Obama for Rising Gas Prices
MSNBC's Chuck Todd rattled off a list of reasons to explain the sharp rise in the price of oil – none of which included Barack Obama's offshore drilling moratorium – and was "confused" about why anyone would blame the president for the prospect of $4 per gallon gasoline.
On the April 28 "Daily Rundown," Todd suggested the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing measures and increases in global…
House Investigating Obama Treasury Dept. Trying to Influence S&P Outlo
Last week I noted how the Washington Post published on page A5 a story about how Obama Treasury officials tried but failed to influence Standard & Poor's credit analysts from downgrading the U.S. government's credit outlook from "stable" to "negative."
Today the Post buried on page A14 a story by staffer Zachary Goldfarb about a House of Representatives investigation into the matter:
Eliot 'I'm Not Biased' Spitzer: 'I Don't Think There Is Any Such Thing
In an interview with FishbowlNY Wednesday, CNN's Eliot Spitzer dismissed any claim to objectivity in his reporting and answered "I don't know" when asked if he is a commentator or a journalist. This came after he recently told the Media Research Center's Brent Bozell "I don't have a bias," on his CNN show "In the Arena."
Spitzer told FishbowlNY that he doesn't know if he is a journalist or a…
AP, NYT Downplaying and Ignoring Mass. Move to Limit Union Health Barg
Gosh, after Republican Governors Scott Walker and John Kasich succeeded in championing legislation curtailing many collective bargaining rights of unionized state and municipal employees in Wisconsin and Ohio, respectively, the establishment press had the meme all set. The GOP, conservatives, and Tea Partiers are enemies of labor and the middle class, while Democrats, liberals, and progressives…
CNN Showcases Five Year-Old Victim of Gov. Christie's Budget Cuts
CNN's Deborah Feyerick took the offensive Tuesday and emphasized the negative effects of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's cuts to education funding. Feyerick highlighted the plight of an illiterate kindergartner from a "high risk" neighborhood as an example of student who could be affected by budget cuts. The segment ran during the 8 a.m. EDT hour of Tuesday's "American Morning" on CNN.
CNN…
Even Liberals Think NYT Columnist Paul Krugman's a Little Paranoid
Paul Krugman, economist turned left-wing folk hero. New York magazine’s Benjamin Wallace-Wells talked with the once respected-economist turned hack New York Times columnist about “What’s Left of the Left,” a title which at least positions Krugman accurately as a left-wing opinion leader who draws cool economics graphs that prove the perfidy of Republican policy (whether or not he once agreed…
Uygur Urges Dems To Be More 'Vicious', Like Republicans
One more sign the Age of Civility is over: an MSNBC host urging Dems to be more "vicious" toward Republicans. Oh, and to engage in more "name-calling."
Apparently writing off any career ambitions of succeeding to the Miss Manners slot, Cenk Uygur issued his recommendations last night in the course of disagreeing with a Dem congressman who was insufficiently coarse for Cenk's taste.
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