Dean Baker

The Washington Post is widely known for giving shrill warnings about the deficit danger, but this one is really over the top. It is literally titled: “the coming debt panic.” The piece tells readers of the urgency of reining in the debt, telling readers that: “failing to do so will lower the national standard of […]

Yes, the Post commits this fundamental sin once again telling readers in reference to an omnibus spending bill approved by the Senate that: “all but three Senate Republicans opposed the measure, citing what they consider to be wasteful spending on domestic agencies at a time of war” (emphasis added). The point of course is that […]

The Post, which published zero news articles anywhere warning of the collapse of the housing bubble, published yet another front page piece warning about budget deficit problems, this time in Greece. This one most expressed the concerns of unnamed “analysts,” (people who didn’t know enough about the economy to see an $8 trillion housing bubble). […]

The Washington Post is apparently concerned that there are not enough real problems in the world so it decided to invent one of its own, telling readers that a “looming population crisis” is forcing China to rethink its one-child policy. What reads the article in vein for anything resembling evidence of a population crisis. At […]

Thirty Democratic members of the House voted against the creation of a consumer financial products protection agency. The Post told readers that these members were “moderate,” and that “like-minded” Democrats in the Senate hold far more power. How does the Post know that the these members voted against a consumer protection agency because they are […]

The Obama administration made easily refutable claims about the economy in a front page Washington Post article that describes a plan to give smaller banks money under more generous conditions. The article presents the claim that smaller banks are not making loans to small businesses because of a lack of capital. If this was true, […]

In an article on the U.K.’s decision to impose a special tax on bankers’ bonuses the NYT told readers that the Obama administration: “have taken a more measured approach to taxing banker bonuses, after considering the effect on the government’s wider efforts to nurse the banking industry back to health and to maintain a flow […]

This seems to be how the NYT views the meeting between President Obama and the Republican congressional leadership at the White House yesterday. It told readers that they “aired philosophical differences,” in a meeting to discuss ways to increase job growth. While it is possible that President Obama and congressional leaders discussed differences in philosophy, […]

The NYT touted the merits of a value-added tax in a piece today. The article tells readers that the United States is an outlier among wealthy nations in not having a value-added tax. This is only partially true. There are sales taxes in 49 states. These taxes are comparable to value added taxes, but they […]

The WSJ has a nice piece explaining how many homeowners will be much better off renting, even if this means defaulting on their mortgages. At the height of the bubble, many people in policy positions, who should have known better, continued to push homeownership as a way to build wealth. When the bubble burst and […]