Economy

It's budget time again, kids. And you know what that means. News stories that hype liberal talking points about President Bush being stingy with our tax dollars.Were that the case, many fiscal conservatives might say, but you won't find any attention paid them in Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar's February 5 article. The Times staff writer cited complaints from Democratic Rep. Pete Stark (D), and of…

Yesterday's Employment Situation Summary from the Bureaus of Labor Statistics told us that reports 111,000 net new jobs were added in January. Additionally, significant upward revisions were made to the previously reported job-increase figures from November (up 42,000 to 196,000 from last month’s revised 154,000) and December (up 39,000 to 206,000 from last month’s originally reported 167,000).…

On Friday’s "Good Morning America," reporter Elizabeth Vargas openly lobbied for the passage of legislation that would require employers to offer six weeks of paid time off to workers for maternity, illness, or the care of a loved one. In addition, the ABC correspondent bashed America for not having "flexible, family friendly polices." According to Vargas, a new Harvard University study places…

Economic gloomsayer (and New York Times reporter) Vikas Bajaj has made something of a specialty in finding dark clouds in economic silver linings, and Thursday's hypothetical hand-wringing on the front-page of the Business section is no different ("What Could Bog Down the Bull -- Slowing Earnings Threaten to Turn the Easy Going Into a Slog Through Mud")."Stocks surged yesterday afternoon, sending…

The nation’s gross domestic product grew at a much faster than expected rate in the fourth quarter as wages increased and inflationary pressures decreased. Will the media care, or figure out a way to tie consumer enthusiasm to the Democrats taking back Congress?Before you place your bets, let’s look at the facts as reported by Bloomberg (emphasis mine throughout):The U.S. economy grew at a faster…

[UPDATE, 11:07 EST, 1/30/2007: Audio (MP3) and Video (Real Player) (Windows Media) clips now available.]If you wake up on Saturday mornings and flip on the telly hoping to catch solid Wall Street analysis or perhaps a roundup of foreign and domestic business headlines that affect your investment portfolio, don't waste your time with CNN's "In the Money." Rather than looking to help average joes…

PBS tonight airs a documentary on the late Milton Friedman, and perhaps surprisingly enough, the taxpayer-funded network did a good job. [check here for local listings]UPDATE: You know it's gotta be good. NY Times reviewer Ginia Bellafante panned it for being too worshipful of the free market advocate. And yes, your eyes deceive you not, she found a downside to ending the draft (Friedman…

We all know the face of real terror. Nick Berg getting his head sawed off by a knife wielding Islamist, suicide bombers laying waste to mass transit in Israel, the World Trade Towers collapsing on the morning of 09/11/01. That is real terror. But, to Reuters, enforcing U.S. immigration laws is terror. The title of the Reuters piece sets the tone for the overwrought sentiment infused throughout…

CNN anchor Lou Dobbs appeared with the ladies on ABC's The View to deliver some rather liberal opinions. He stumped for a minimum wage increase, railed against the influence big corporations have on politics, and pushed for universal healthcare. Interestingly, Dobbs was not grilled the way Bill O’Reilly was on the same show several months ago. Also of note, the co-hosts did not even touch…

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta found another explanation for why Junior is rolling round the family room with a spare tire: food advertising on the Internet. It gets better. The study he's citing is 6 months old and hails from the liberal Kaiser Family Foundation. What's more, Gupta didn't give any tips for parents about how to regulate their kids Internet use and only gave 6 seconds to an advertising…