Feb. Home Sales Dive: Press Ignores Realtors' Concerns About Economy
Ridicule by media critics has apparently made some headway against the business press's annoying habit of describing bad news about the economy as having occurred "unexpectedly." Now they seem to be reserving the "U-word" for unexpected improvements, which haven't been seen very much during the past seven-plus years.
Instead, reacting to today's bad news from the National Association of Realtors…
AP: U.S. Economy Started 2016 'With a Bang'
At the Associated Press, in a Friday morning writeup, the wire service's headline writers and reporter Martin Crutsinger demonstrated extraordinary auditory powers.
The headline writers somehow heard the entire U.S. economy start the year off "with a bang." Meanwhile, Crutsinger, continuing to earn his designated title of "worst economics writer" given by Kevin Williamson at National Review…
AP Howler: 'Demand For Housing Has Recovered' Since Recession
In the context of his pathetic writeup on the government's disappointing report on January new-home sales, Josh Boak at the Associated Press had the nerve to claim that "demand for housing has recovered over the course of the 6 ½-year recovery from the recession."
Wow. Who knew that the industry has made it all the way back to an acceptable level at long last? The obvious answer to that question…
At AP, Economy's Good-News Story Sticks; Bad News Disappears (UPDATED)
Two important economic reports came out today at 10 a.m. One had relatively good news, while the other was a definite downer.
At 2:43 p.m., the good-news item was still listed second at the Associated Press's list of Top 10 business stories, while the bad-news item was gone. That's all in a day's work of news manipulation at what should be called the Administration's Press. (UPDATE: At 9:12 p.m…
AP: 'Americans Rushed to Buy New Homes in Dec.' — A Whole 38,000
The hype machine was in overdrive at the Associated Press on Wednesday as economics reporter Josh Boak covered the government's mid-morning release on new-home sales.
Boak opened by writing that "Americans rushed to buy new homes in December at the strongest pace in 10 months." Good heavens, we're talking about only 38,000 individuals or families, or about 0.031 percent of the nation's roughly…
IBD Explains Consumer Bureau's Auto Loan 'Shakedown' Press Won't Cover
Critics who warned in 2010 that the odious Dodd-Frank law's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would become a rogue agency which would become a largely unaccountable behemoth on a mission to create problems where none exist could not have been more correct.
Sadly, searches on terms relevant to one of the agency's latest controversies involving the distribution of funds in a two year-old auto-…
AP Fails to Report: 93 Pct. of U.S. Counties Haven't Fully Recovered
On Wednesday, Amber Phillips at the Washington Post's The Fix blog impressively took President Obama to task for his over-the-top bragging about the nation's mediocre (and likely getting worse) economy. She noted that "the biggest knock on the Obama economy ... is that the recovery has been very good for the wealthy and certain sectors and not so much for the middle class and everyone else." Hear…
With Worse Data Than a Decade Ago, AP Says No Recession 'Anytime Soon'
During the middle years of last decade, the business press, including the Associated Press, worked the word "recession" into its reports on the economy quite regularly.
Yesterday, despite a current economy facing far worse fundamentals than were seen during 2007, the AP's Paul Wiseman and Bernard Condon gave us a nearly 882-word treatise on "WHY GLOBAL WOES AND SINKING STOCKS DON'T MEAN US…
AP Blames World for Stocks' Dive; CNBC Scribe Warns: 'Worse Than '08'
The Associated Press's coverage of Friday's deep U.S. stock market dive in two Friday afternoon reports engaged in the reality avoidance longtime readers here have come to expect.
An item by Stan Choe ("Get used to it: Big drops for stocks are back again") spent most of its verbiage on "volatility," and only cited "China's sharp economic slowdown ... Tensions in the Middle East ... the plunge in…
Seahawks Lineman Sees American Dream as ‘One of the Greatest Lies'
Culture
Most families who flee countries in turmoil to find happiness, health, and considerable wealth in a new land would consider themselves to be living something of a dream. But don’t tell that to Seahawks offensive lineman Russell Okung.
On Economy, AP Wraps Year With Two Weak Stories and a Glaring Omission
This week, the Associated Press wrapped up a year of largely pathetic business reporting with three items exemplifying the wire service's habits of data-twisting, sloppiness, and convenient omissions.
A deceptive AP post-Christmas story pretended that Christmas-season "spending" was twice as high as anyone else has predicted. A report on pending home sales omitted a concerned comment from a…
AP Continues to Push Bogus 'New Normal' Benchmark For New-Home Sales
The Census Bureau reported today that new-home sales in November came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 490,000. That was a 4.3 percent increase over October, but it only occurred because October was revised steeply downward by 25,000 to 470,000; August and September were also revised slightly downward. Actual sales were 34,000, the highest November figure during the Obama era but lower…
Press Exaggerates Nov. Existing-Home Sales Plunge by Ignoring Raw Data
The business press worships at the altar of seasonally adjusted data. Most journalists covering the economy don't even bother looking at raw, not seasonally adjusted data, which in layman's terms is best understood as "what actually happened." As I have shown for nearly a decade, this is often a big mistake.
On the rare occasions when reporters take the initiative to look at the raw data, they…
Absurd Reuters: Today's Homebuilding News 'Signals Economic Strength'
Reuters and reporter Lucia Mutikani went way overboard today in reacting to today's residential construction news from the Census Bureau.
Mutikani's headline contended that today's "housing data signals economic strength," while a section title claimed that there are "strong housing fundamentals." That can only possibly be true if one believes the world began in 2007.
