Dean Baker's Blog, page 357

You Can Keep Your Insurance: Washington Post Fact Checker Assessment

Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post's fact checker, gave President Obama four Pinocchios for telling people that under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) they would be able to keep their insurance plan, if they liked it. Kessler points out that many plans are being terminated because they do not comply with the minimum standards laid out by the ACA. The people on these plans are not able to keep their insurance.

Kessler notes that the plans in existence as of the time the ACA was passed would be gr...

Why NPR is Not the New York Times: Really Big Numbers on Food Stamps

Most people have no clue how much the government will spend this year and even less idea of how much money it will spend over the next decade. That is true even of the highly educated people who listen to National Public Radio. That is why it is just awful reporting on NPR's part when it tells listeners about a $5 billion cut to food stamps this year or a Republican proposal to cut benefits by $40 billion over the next decade.

This provides no information whatsoever to the overwhelming majori...

Big Congrats to David Crane for Getting It Right on Pension Fund Transparency

It's rare that people involved in public debates openly acknowledge that they were wrong and change their position. (I'm sure that I would if it ever happened.) For this reason David Crane deserves enormous credit for acknowledging in his Bloomberg column that pension funds should fully disclose the fees and returns from their alternative investments.

This acknowledgement came about as a result of an exchange with David Sirota. Sirota had criticized a number of public pension funds (especial...

Yes, Alan Greenspan Owes Us a Really Big Apology

I try not to use BTP to carry on personal exchanges, but I can't resist this one. I see that Nick Gwiazda takes issue with me in the International Business Times arguing that Alan Greenspan does not owe the United States and the world an apology for allowing the housing bubble to grow large enough that its collapse would destroy the economy.

Apparently, Mr. Gwiazda thinks that I am Monday morning quarterbacking on this one. That is 180 degrees at odds with reality. I was warning about the bub...

Robert Samuelson Is Confused About the Affordable Care Act

It's always fun to follow the Washington Post columnist on his expedition in economic confusion as he mangles one topic after another. Today we go with Samuelson to visit the claim that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a job killer.

Samuelson notes the evidence produced by the White House showing that there has been no rise in part-time employment as a result of the ACA. (CEPR produced a study confirming this claim. The share of workers putting in less than 30 hours a week was lower in the fi...

An Upward Redistribution of Income, not an Improving Economy Explains the Drop in the Deficit

In an article about congressional negotiations aimed at reducing the deficit and eliminating jobs, the Washington Post explained that there had been a sharp drop in the size of the deficit since the Republicans took over Congress in 2011:

"Since then [January, 2011], a series of budget deals — and an improving economy — have dramatically slowed federal borrowing. On Wednesday, the White House budget office announced that the government recorded a $680­ billion deficit in the fiscal year...

The Wreckage of the Deficit Cutting Crew

Eduardo Porter does a nice job laying out the case explaining how the budget cutters have slowed growth and thrown people out of work (and they are proud).

Members of Congress Feel No Pressure to Reverse Policies Causing Mass Unemployment

That is what the NYT told readers in its budget piece today. Apparently because people who matter in Washington have little concern about large numbers of unemployed and underemployed people, as well as the upward redistribution of income, the NYT said that members negotiating over the budget feel no need to create jobs and boost economic growth. While business groups and their allies at major news outlets like the Washington Post and National Public Radio are placing enormous pressure on mem...

NPR Shills for Fix the Debt

When Morning Edition had former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers on saying that we may not have to focus so much on reducing the deficit, it immediately followed up with a discussion from Wall Street Journal editor Mike Wessell, which told people that Summers position was not politically serious. In Washington we have to talk about reducing the deficit.

Apparently feeling the need to further refute the idea that the deficit is not a problem, Morning Edition invited Maya MacGuineas, the Presid...

Jeff Bezos' Newspaper Works With Republicans to Create Scandal Over Obamacare

The Washington Post joined Republicans in hyping the fact that many individual insurance policies are being cancelled with insurers telling people that the reason is the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The second paragraph comments on this fact:

"The notices [of plan cancellation] appear to contradict President Obama’s promise that despite the changes resulting from the law, Americans can keep their health insurance if they like it."

It would have been useful to point out that the plans that were...