Newspapers should try to report economic data in ways that are clear to their readers. That should not be a debatable point.

The NYT badly failed in this task in an article on European economic growth. The headline told readers that “Economy Grows Nearly 1% in Europe.” Before anyone bemoans poor European growth, it is important to realize that the 1.0 percent is a quarterly growth rate. In other words, Europe’s economy grew by close to 1.0 percent in the second quarter of the year. This translates into close to a 4.0 percent annual rate.

In the United States, growth is always reported as an annual rate. There is absolutely no excuse for a reporter (or an editor) not taking the 2 seconds needed to convert a quarterly rate into an annual rate. This is about as simple as it gets; the Times should not be reporting economic data in ways that might unnecessarily mislead readers.

–Dean Baker

Dean Baker is senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He is the author of several books, including Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. Read more about Dean.