Dean Baker's Blog, page 484

NYT Corrects Story on the Critics of Obama/Romney Care In Massachusetts

The NYT deserves credit for correcting an item in an article on the impact of the mandate in Massachusetts that I commented on last week. The piece had repeated the assertion of a person interviewed for the piece that it would cost him $1,200 a month to get the health insurance for himself and his daughter required by the mandate. The on-line exchange shows that the cheapest policy for these two people would be $685 a month. The correction noted this fact. 

Yet Another 4-Year Low in Weekly Unemployment Claims, as This Week's Number Comes in Above Last Week's

Okay folks, this is getting really stupid at this point. The headline of the AP article in the Washington Post on the latest unemployment claims number tells readers:

"weekly US unemployment claims fall to 357,000, a 4-year low, as job market strengthens."

Before anyone gets too excited, they should be reminded that claims for two weeks ago had originally been reported as 348,000, and last week's originally reported number had been only slightly higher at 359,000. The upward revision of the w...

More He Said/She Said Budget Reporting from the Post

Do trees really need to die for this stuff? See below.

He Said/She Said Budget Reporting at the NYT

The NYT did some really serious he said/she said budget reporting in a front page article on the House Republican budget proposed by Representative Paul Ryan, which also has been endorsed by Governor Romney. The article reports what both Democrats and Republicans say about the Ryan budget without making any effort to verify the extent to which the statements are true. In several cases, this could be quite easily done.

For example, the article tells readers in reference to the Ryan budget and ...

Germany Doesn't Have to Sacrifice, the ECB Could Just Print Money

A major Washington Post article reporting on the situation of depressed areas of former West Germany implied that Germans would have to sacrifice more in order to finance a larger bailout of Greece, Spain and other heavily indebted countries. This is not true.

The major problem facing the euro zone countries right now is a lack of demand, not a lack of supply. In other words, increased resources for the indebted countries do not have to come at the expense of Germany's living standard. The...

Manufacturing Jobs Still Matter, as Does the Dollar

Eduardo Porter had an interesting column in the NYT discussing the future of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. economy and the role of trade. While the piece makes several valid points, it seriously underplays the importance of manufacturing jobs. Remarkably, it also does not discuss the trade deficit and the dollar.

The piece is correct in saying that there is nothing intrinsically good about manufacturing jobs and that it makes little difference to manufacturing workers whether they lose...

It's Not Just Democrats Who Say That Eliminating Small Tax Breaks Will Not Make Up for Rate Reductions

The NYT did some serious head said/she said reporting when it concluded an article reporting on President Obama's criticism of the tax cuts for the rich in the Republican budget:

"In theory, tax writers could focus on tax breaks that primarily help the rich, like the deduction for charitable giving, or end the biggest tax breaks only for upper income earners. But Democrats say such selective changes to the tax code would never recoup such large cuts to income tax rates."

It is not just...

Adventures in Bank Regulation: How Slow Are the Employees at Monadnock Community Bank?

That's undoubtedly what NYT readers were asking after reading a piece saying that banks are fleeing federal regulators in order to avoid the excessive burden. The piece begins by telling us about Monadnock Community Bank, a small community bank in New Hampshire.

According to the piece, William Pierce, the president of Monadnock, is planning to sell the bank to credit union so that it can avoid the burdensome regulation of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). As an example...

Good NYT Piece on Public Sector Pension Funds Being Ripped Off

The NYT had a good piece reporting on the fact that public sector pension funds that have invested heavily in alternative investments (e.g. hedge funds, real estate funds and private equity funds) have done much worse than those that just held traditional investments (e.g. stocks and bonds). While the managers of these alternative investments did quite well collecting fees, the governments did not.

There is a simple way to avoid this problem. If the funds made compensation for the managers...

E.J. Dionne Inadvertently Gives Evidence on the "Right's Stealthy Coup"

In his column today, titled "the right's stealthy coup," E.J. Dionne discussed the takeover of the Republican Party by its extreme right-wing. For example, he noted that the Republican Supreme Court justices appear to be taking positions that even President Reagan's solicitor general considers absurd.

Dionne then shows how effective the right has been in their stealthy coup effort when he refers to "a vote on the deficit-reduction proposals offered by the commission headed by former Sen...