NYT Writer: ‘Government Must Play a Role Again in Job Creation’
In an analysis for the front page of Wednesday’s New York Times business section, Eduardo Porter trumpeted that the real issue ailing the American economy and impeding on its improvement is the lack of mass government jobs programs similar to its “large and underappreciated role in reshaping” the country during the 19th and 20th centuries.
WashPost Headline Says 'The Economy's Real Drag' Is 'Us'
In case you didn't get the message the first or second time around, the Washington Post wants you to hear it again: Cool your complaints about the weak U.S. economy, because it's your fault.
To be clear, the problem is primarily with the Post's headline — "The economy’s real drag: Us" — than with Robert J. Samuelson's content, which at least gave American consumers credit for having "sobered up…
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Will Nets Notice? FNC's Gingrich: Hillary Is ‘Ruthless’
The press is protecting Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton from the true extent of the blowback over her expressed desire to see coal miners lose their jobs and her bogus attempt to "apologize" for what she said.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, appearing on Fox & Friends Thursday morning, identified a larger truth about Mrs. Clinton's callous disregard for workers and their families…
Of Course: Press Blame Long Airport Lines on TSA ‘Budget Cuts’
Almost any time a government agency or program fails to perform, those involved complain that they don't have enough money to properly do their jobs. Unless the matter involves national defense, the press gullibly swallows their contentions.
The Transportation Safety Administration is the latest case in point. Lines at airport security checkpoints are already getting noticeably longer, and we…
David Frum: ‘True Conservatives’ a ‘Pitiful Minority’ of the GOP
In March of 2013, the Republican National Committee issued what soon became known as the “autopsy report,” which discussed how the party might improve its chances of winning presidential elections. Last Thursday in The Atlantic, reform conservative (or former conservative) Frum provided the GOP with a sort of pre-autopsy document that it might consult after Donald Trump’s “almost certain failure…
NYT Lets Obama Play Heroic Savior of U.S. Economy on Sunday Mag Cover
As his final term wanes, the New York Times is making excuses for the economy’s performance under President Obama, with the president himself guiding the way. Economics reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin’s interview of Obama for the cover of the Times Sunday magazine dug in in defense of Obama. The subhead: “Eight years after the financial crisis, unemployment is at 5 percent, deficits are down and G.D.…
Imagine That: 'Anti-Corporate Rhetoric' Affects the Economy
On Thursday, shortly after the government estimated that the economy only grew at an annual rate of 0.5 percent in this year's first quarter, Jeffry Bartash at Marketwatch.com commented on the especially weak performance in nonresidential business investment.
That category subtracted 0.76 points from GDP, the worst result since the second quarter of 2009, during the recession. Bartash,…
Not News: $4 Trillion in Annual GDP Growth Lost to Regulations
The editorialists at Investor's Business Daily have reported on the results of an important study by several George Mason University Mercatus Center economists showing what regulations have cost the economy in economic growth since 1980. The establishment press, which has been singularly uninterested in reporting anything that has to potential to slow the regulatory leviathan down — y'know,…
Bloomberg: As 'Microscopic' Growth Looms, Lower Your Expectations
Just in time for tomorrow's first-quarter economic growth announcement from the government, Bloomberg Businessweek's Economics Editor is telling readers: "Don't Sweat America's Upcoming Microscopic GDP Growth."
Besides, Peter Coy writes, people need to get used to the supposedly inescapable fact that "Normal growth for the U.S. economy is just a lot lower than it used to be." Americans shouldn't…
Kos: GOP ‘A**holes’ Routinely Get Away With Vague Campaign Promises
George H. W. Bush pooh-poohed “the vision thing.” Bernie Sanders wouldn’t have a presidential campaign without it. True, the Vermont senator is not known for his grasp of policy minutiae, to which Daily Kos founder and publisher Markos Moulitsas says, in effect, so what?
Kos implied that Sanders has caught a lot more flak for his vague answers than Republicans do when they routinely “promis[e] …
Coincidence? Two Media Outlets Push Same Minimum Wage Advocates
On April 1, the Associated Press, in an online video which I covered in an April 2 NewsBusters post, interviewed three California business owners about the impact the state's just-passed $15-per-hour minimum wage would have on their businesses.
Though the video was headlined "Small Businesses React to Calif. Wage Increase," the owners interviewed weren't representative of the whole state in any…
Obama, EPA Unmentioned In AP Stories on Largest Coal Co.'s Bankruptcy
Just three months after Arch, the nation's Number 2 coal mining company, filed for bankruptcy, Number 1, Peabody Energy, has followed suit. Five of the industry's largest firms have now gone bankrupt in the past 12 months.
Two Associated Press stories on Peabody this week managed to avoid mentioning the name of President Barack Obama, whose hostility toward the industry has been obvious since…
Business Press Mostly Blames Consumers For Weak Economy
Today's report from the government on retail sales was awful — "unexpectedly" so, according to both Bloomberg and Reuters. Following on the heels of a 0.4 percent seasonally adjusted decline in January and a flat February, March sales fell by 0.3 percent.
Two of the three main U.S. business wire services blamed the American people, not the worst post-recession economy since World War II during…
Jonathan Chait: Conservatives, ‘Acceptable’ Health Reform Don’t Mix
There’s a crucial difference between the Loch Ness Monster and any Republican health-care-reform plan worthy of the name: Nessie almost certainly does not exist, but the GOP plan cannot exist. That, essentially, was the message of a Monday blog post by New York magazine’s Chait.
“It is impossible to design a health-care plan that is both consistent with conservative ideology and acceptable to…
