Dean Baker

To those following the issue, the Washington Post still has not corrected the error in its reporting on Mexico’s post NAFTA growth rate (“Mexican Deportee’s U.S. Sojourn Illuminates Roots of Current Crisis,” 4-17-06:A1). My April 18th post noted that the growth data reported in this article implied that Mexico had enjoyed an average GDP growth […]

Proponents of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are happy to make whatever outlandish claims are convenient to advance their cause. A few years ago, they were pushing the line that drilling in the Refuge would generate 500,000-750,000 jobs, citing a study by WEFA, one of the country’s leading economic forecasting firms. We did […]

As the housing bubble starts to unwind people will be looking for villains in this economic disaster. There are many, with the list including Alan Greenspan, the bulk of the economics profession, and of course, the reporters covering the housing market. As was the case with the stock bubble, there was very little attention paid […]

Last Tuesday, I pointed out that a front page Washington Post article had overstated Mexico’s growth in the post-NAFTA era by a factor of five (Mexican Deportee’s U.S. Sojourn Illuminates Roots of Current Crisis, 4-17-06:A1). It appears that the Post’s problems with arithmetic are continuing. The front page of the Sunday Outlook section had an […]

In many economic policy debates, the worst possible adjective is “protectionist.” All right thinking people know that protectionism is bad. According to the economic in-crowd, only ignorant and reactionary people support protectionism measures. (The Post gives a nice example of this thinking in a piece explaining how the IMF will act to prevent protectionism in […]

I had earlier promised to give my explanation for the fact that articles on the budget fail to put budget numbers in a context that would make the millions, billions and trillions meaningful to readers. While laziness is part of the story, the bigger factor is simply inertia, why change? Reporters may agree that it […]

This is not a grand existential question; I am referring to the size of its economy. According to most news reports, China’s GDP is approaching $2 trillion, rivaling Germany for the #3 ranking in the world, behind the United States and Japan. In fact, this figure grossly understates the size of China’s economy. It is […]

Readers of the Washington Post might have been surprised to read that since the passage of NAFTA, “Mexico’s gross domestic product has ballooned, multiplying nearly seven-fold, from $108 billion in 1993 … to $748 billion in 2005” (“Mexican Deportee’s U.S. Sojourn Illuminates Roots of Current Crisis,” 4-17-06:A1). This amounts to a world record 17.5 percent […]

A New York Times story on Iceland provides a good opportunity to discuss the asymmetry in reporting on government budget deficits and national current account deficits. While news of the budget deficit routinely appears prominently on the front pages (in addition to occupying considerable space on editorial and op-ed pages) discussion of the current account […]

The New York Times ran a front page story on Sunday that could have been a case study of why it is essential to put budget numbers in context. The article, “Medicaid Rule For Immigrants May Bar Others,” explains how new rules intended to prevent illegal immigrants from getting Medicaid may also prevent many eligible […]