Fox on 15th ran another front page editorial whining about the budget deficit today. The editorial begins: "Under mounting pressure to rein in mammoth budget deficits, President Obama will propose in his State of the Union address a three-year freeze on federal funding that is not related to national security,..." A real news story would have left out the word "mammoth" which conveys the newspaper's view, but provides readers with no information.

When it came to evaluating arguments on Oregon's initiatives to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations, the WSJ told readers that: "big numbers are being wielded on both sides." This is of course true, however WSJ reporters in principle have the time and expertise to determine which numbers are correct, most readers do not.

It apparently takes a long time for news to get to Washington, or at least to the Washington Post. It apparently still has not heard about the housing bubble -- you know that $8 trillion asset bubble whose crash gave the country the worst downturn since the Great Depression.

The Post ran a major front page article about the withdrawal of government support for the housing market without ever once discussing the bubble and where prices stand in relation to their long-term trend. In fact, the article did not even discuss such basics of the housing market as vacancy rates (record highs) and trends in rents (falling in nominal terms for the first time ever).

Frederick Mishkin, the former Federal Reserve Board Governor who is best known for his 2006 study praising Iceland's economy to the sky, endorsed Bernanke's reappointment as Fed chair. According to the NYT, Mishkin commented:

"My view is Chairman Bernanke helped save the world from depression, ... Whether you agree with every policy he’s pursued or some of the ways the bailouts were done, the outcome here, given the severity of the shock, is a good one. But that’s hard to explain to the American public when we’re sitting with 10 percent unemployment.”

The WSJ discussed the likely line-up on a vote to approve Ben Bernanke's reappointment as Fed chairman. At one point it tells readers that:

"If the full Senate votes in a similar proportion that the Senate Banking Committee did in its 16-7 approval last month, Mr. Bernanke would receive 69 votes—the fewest since Paul Volcker, who was confirmed 84-16 for a second term in 1983."

This is difficult to understand. If Volcker received 84 votes supporting his second term then this is considerably more than the 69 projected for Bernanke.

The Post yet again could not resist the urge to editorialize on the deficit in a news story, referring to it as "skyrocketing." Of course the debt is increasing rapidly as a result of the downturn caused by the economic mismanagement of Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, but if the economy recovers as predicted, then the deficits will shrink to more reasonable levels in the near future. Terms like "skyrocketing" belong in editorials, not news stories in serious newspapers, unless they are direct quotes.

There is another round of news pieces about China becoming the world's second largest economy, for example the NYT headlined a piece that discussed this possibility, and NPR mentioned it in Morning Edition's top of the hour news segment. This is really really silly.