Dean Baker's Blog, page 550

The New York Times Tells President Obama That He Has to Cut Social Security and Medicare

The NYT ran a piece that told readers that it was necessary for President Obama to cut Social Security and Medicare for the good of the economy. This is not obviously true. There is no shortage of economists who would say that the economy's main problem is a lack of demand. This can be met by more stimulus, more aggressive action from the Fed, or a decline in the value of the dollar.

Remarkably, the NYT did not include the views of any economist who made these points. The only views...

National Public Radio Redoubles the Effort to Cut Your Social Security and Medicare

Wall Street investment banker Peter Peterson has pledged $1 billion to the effort to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Other Wall Street types are doing their part, as is National Public Radio.

They are doing a full court press now -- things are really terrible, if you don't give up your Social Security and Medicare, then the economy might collapse. (Oh yeah, the economy already did collapse because none of these people were troubled by the $8 trillion housing bubble, but don't...

Chilean Students are Protesting Cuts to Education, Quick What Do the Bankers Think?

That must have been what the editors at Reuters asked their reporter in Chile. How else could one explain the quote from the head of research at a Santiago brokerage house at the end of a short story on student protests. I guess no story is complete without presenting the view of the financial sector on the topic.

Productivity, Profits, and Job Growth

An AP article on the latest productivity data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was a bit confused on the relationship between productivity, profits, and job growth. The article noted the 0.3 percent decline in productivity reported for the second quarter. This followed a decline of 0.6 percent in the first quarter. It suggested that this could be bad for hiring since it would reduce corporate profits and leave them with less money to hire additional workers.

Actually, slower...

The Post Is Learning a Bit More About Trade and the Economy

In an article on the value of the dollar the Washington Post noted that a high dollar makes U.S. goods less competitive in international markets. While this is an improvement over pieces that warn the dollar could plummet if the U.S. doesn't get its budget deficit down, the article still remains confused on the issue. It later told readers:

"For the better part of the past decade, the dollar has steadily lost value against other international currencies, reflecting both the rapid economic g...

Son of Senator Simpson Misrepresents His Plan on NPR

Steve Inskeep allowed former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson (who is also the son of a Wyoming senator) to misrepresent the deficit reduction plan that he co-authored with Morgan Stanley director Erskine Bowles. Simpson complained that most of the criticism he got came from people in their 70s. Which he said was foolish because his plan would not even hurt people in their 70s.

This is not true. Senator Simpson's plan calls for changing the indexation formula for Social Security. Under Simpson's ...

NYT Gets Carried Away With Recession Watch

The NYT got a bit overenthusiastic about the prospects for a double-dip recession. It told readers:

"the most recent government reports of consumer spending and factory orders show that both have been falling."

This is not quite right. The most recent data on consumer spending showed that it was flat in June. The key category in factory orders is orders for capital goods. This represents investment demand, which reflects firms confidence about future business prospects. Excluding aircraft...

New York Times Puts Editorial on Deficit Reduction on Front Page

A front page NYT article on the impact of the S&P downgrade included several assertions that were not supported by evidence. For example, the article told readers in the second paragraph:

"Even before the panel [the congressional commission established in the debt agreement] is appointed, its mission is expanding. Its role is not just to cut the annual budget deficit and slow the explosive growth of federal debt but also to appease the markets and help restore the United States' top...

A New Metric for Military Spending from Robert Samuelson!

Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson came up with a new metric for measuring the size of the military budget. He told readers that under last week's debt deal:

"defense spending would shrink to 15 percent of the budget by 2016. This would be the lowest share since before World War II."

Wow, military spending measured as a share of the budget, what a great concept! The Samuelson measure means that we should be spending more money on the military if we were to have a national health...

No One Told the Post About the Euro Zone Crisis

It's apparently hard to get economic news at the Washington Post. How else can one explain the fact that it explains the movement of markets over the weekend only in reference to S&P's downgrade of U.S. debt and completely ignores the debt crisis in Europe that could lead to the collapse of the euro. The latter threatens the same sort of freeze up of the financial system that we saw in the wake of the Lehman bankruptcy. It is likely that markets were more concerned about this prospect than...