Dean Baker

Good to see that reporters and my fellow economists are now discovering some of the downsides of the housing bubble. The WSJ now recognizes the problem in part, although we’re still only talking about something “harder than a soft landing but softer than a hard landing.” But, that’s progress. The article earns a BTP goat […]

NPR ran a piece this morning on �counterfeiting� in China. (Anyone who heard the story knows that NPR disapproves of the practice being discussed, but the term that neutral reporters use is �unauthorized copying.�) The segment included no economic analysis of the practice, which would point out many of the benefits of unauthorized copies. The […]

As I have noted before (see �Missing Fact on British Health Care,� May 7, 2006), the New York Times feels the need to periodically run articles on the health care crises in countries with universal health care systems. These articles never make comparisons to the health care situation in the United States, which might help […]

The Post had an article on the Congressional Budget Office�s (CBO) estimate of the cost of the recently passed Senate immigration bill that was sure to mislead anyone who reads it. The article�s headline warns that CBO estimated the 10-year cost at $126 billion. This headline not only commits the common sin of scaring readers […]

The NYT had a good piece this morning about plans by the I.R.S. to turn over 12,500 tax deliquency cases to private collection agencies. There are two interesting features to this story. First, the I.R.S. believes that it will get less money by turning these cases over to private collection agencies than if it pursued […]

A couple of days ago I commented in passing about the Bureau of Labor Statistics plans to change the way it reports its inflation numbers. I realize that I did not fully understand the issue until a couple of posts clarified the problem. Currently, BLS reports index numbers and changes only to the first decimal. […]

USA Today had a great story about President Bush�s visit to a Harley-Davidson factor in York, Pennsylvania to tout the merits of �free-trade.� The reason why the story was so great is that the plant is in fact a testament to the effective use of protectionist policies to sustain a favored industry. Don�t take my […]

The press treated it as big news that inflation in the core CPI came in at 0.2 percent in July after being 0.3 percent in each of the prior 4 months. The celebration may be premature. While there is some evidence of easing price pressure in the data (lower medical care inflation stands out in […]

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 […]

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece today on how France Telecom is trying to set up its workers in their own business as a way of getting around restrictions on layoffs. The story itself is interesting — it�s an innovative initiative that would seem to produce win/win outcomes. But the discussion also raises […]