Dean Baker's Blog, page 568

President Obama Uses His Travel for Political Purposes and the Washington Post Is Shocked!

The Washington Post had a clean out the refrigerator front page piece taking pot shots at President Obama for favoring a certain number of politically connected firms in the clean energy business and also using his travel for political purposes.

There are two distinct issues here. Is the president using his travel for political purposes? Do fish swim in the ocean?

Come on folks, this is not serious. There is no front page story in presidents using their travel for political ends, there's no s...

Can't The NYT Find an Economist Who Knows Anything About the Economy?

That is what readers are asking after seeing an NYT article in which several economists expressed surprise over the continuing weakness of the economy. What is surprising in this picture? What sector did they expect to give a boost to the economy that fell short?

The special cues to the ignorance of the economists interviewed is the seeming surprise at the continuing drop in house prices. Do these economists still not know about the housing bubble? It almost crashed the financial system and i...

Can't The NYT Find an Economist Who Knows Anything Abou the Economy?

That is what readers are asking after seeing an NYT article in which several economists expressed surprise over the continuing weakness of the economy. What is surprising in this picture? What sector did they expect to give a boost to the economy that fell short?

The special cues to the ignorance of the economists interviewed is the seeming surprise at the continuing drop in house prices. Do these economists still not know about the housing bubble? It almost crashed the financial system and i...

Fox on 15th Editorializes In Its News Section Again

It is remarkable how the Washington Post (a.k.a. Fox on 15th) cannot write a story on the budget deficit without feeling the need to editorialize. Today's piece referred to the "the swollen national debt."

Real newspapers would have just called it "the national debt." However, the Post could not resist the opportunity to push their editorial line pushing the need for deficit reduction.

NPR Talks About Manufacturing's Prospects Without Mentioning Tariff on U.S. Exports

Actually, what NPR did not mention was the value of the dollar, however an over-valued dollar has the same effect on U.S. exports as a tax on exports. In other words, if the dollar is 15 percent over-valued, this is equivalent to imposing a 15 percent tax on all the goods exported from the country, since it makes our goods roughly 15 percent more expensive to people living in other countries. Similarly, if the dollar is over-valued by 15 percent then it is equivalent to subsidizing imports...

The NYT Is Confused About Housing in the UK

The NYT ran an article noting that homeownership rates in the UK are dropping which it attributed to the fact that, "disposable income has shrunk and loan requirements have toughened."

However somewhat later in the article it notes that:

"One reason homeownership remains attractive in Britain is because property values dropped less drastically than in the United States, in part because of a shortage in housing. Prices in some large cities, including London, have even increased recently."

I...

Krugman Nails NYT Nonsense on Argentina

I've been otherwise occupied so I didn't get around to beating up this utterly bizarre NYT story that features Argentina as presenting a clear warning to Greece of the dangers of default. Fortunately, Krugman picked up on it on his blog. 

The basic point is that Argentina's economy has done extremely well following its default. It is difficult to see why anyone in Greece would not default in an instant if they thought Greece's economy would follow the same path as Argentina's economy has...

Making It Up to Push Deficit Reduction: Washington Post Version

The Washington Post piece on the new long-term budget projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) began:

"The national debt will exceed the size of the entire U.S. economy by 2021 — and balloon to nearly 200 percent of GDP within 25 years — without dramatic cuts to federal health and retirement programs or steep tax increases, congressional budget analysts said Wednesday."

Actually, this is not what the projections showed. The CBO projections showed that if Congress simply...

Making It Up to Push Deficit Reduction: NPR Version

In the top of the hour news segment on Morning Edition, NPR told listeners that the Congressional Budget Office warned that the national debt will soon equal the annual size of the economy and this could lead to a European-style crisis. This is not true, see below.

Making It Up to Push Deficit Reduction: NYT Version

The NYT ran an AP article on the new long-term budget projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that began:

"The national debt is on pace to equal the annual size of the economy within a decade, levels that could provoke a European-style crisis unless policymakers take action on the federal deficit, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office."

This is not true. The CBO report did not warn of "a European-style crisis." The reason it did not is that a European...