Dean Baker

The NYT notes the sharp drop in the trade deficit for calendar year 2009 compared to 2008. The falloff in the trade deficit was a striking feature of the downturn. Imports fell by almost than 25 percent year over year. Exports fell nearly as much in percentage terms, but since U.S. exports were only two-thirds […]

The NYT told readers that China’s central bank is raising reserve requirements rather than the central bank lending rate because it is worried that if raised its lending rate, the higher interest rates would pull more foreign money into the economy. This explanation does not make sense because raising reserve requirements would also lead to […]

Morning Edition reported on Spain’s slump this morning. The slump has pushed the unemployment rate into the high teens. At one point the piece presents the views of an economist who asserts that Spain’s fundamentals were sound prior to the downturn. This is not true. Spain had a huge housing bubble that led to a […]

In the U.S. economic growth measures are always presented at annual rates. There is no magic to using annual rates, but it is the convention. This is why it is infuriating to see the NYT use quarterly growth figures in an article reporting on Europe’s growth rate for the fourth quarter of 2009. The use […]

Mervyn King, the head of the United Kingdom’s central bank, is best known for allowing the UK’s housing bubble to expand to a level that was even greater than the bubble in the U.S. At its peak in 2007, house prices in the UK were on average about 10 percent higher than the bubble-inflated prices […]

That is what USA Today claims. It told readers that the Obama administration believes that current saving rates are impairing economic recovery: “It [job growth] will be even tougher if Americans continue to save at high rates — somewhere in the 4% to 7% range — as the White House report predicts they will until […]

The NYT had an article about rising inflation in China. At one point it notes the government’s determination to prevent inflation. It then tells readers that higher inflation may reduce pressure from the U.S. to raise the value of the yuan, since higher inflation in China will make Chinese goods relatively less competitive. It would […]

The NYT had a piece on a deal that Amazon.com made with book publishers which could raise the price of some e-books by as much as 50 percent. At one point the article asserts that readers who might resist this increase don’t understand the economics of publishing: “To consumers who do not pay much attention […]

People making over $225,000 must have it much tougher than the rest of us since the media highlight their problems so frequently. In discussing the housing market and the homebuyers’ tax credit USA Today told readers: “Many potential buyers in higher-price markets such as New York, Boston, Hawaii and San Francisco won’t qualify because their […]