Dean Baker

The Washington Post told readers that: “according to the Congressional Budget Office, a government plan as outlined in both the Senate and House bills would cost more than private coverage and, as a result, attract few customers.” It would have been helpful to point out that the reason CBO projects that the plan will have […]

That might not sound scary to most people, but this was the punch line of a front page NYT news story that included all sorts of unsupported assertions about the crisis posed by the government debt. The fourth paragraph asserts that: “Even as Treasury officials are racing to lock in today’s low rates by exchanging […]

The NYT misled readers about the reason that a deal for Fannie Mae to sell tax breaks to Goldman Sachs was nixed. The NYT said that the deal: “was blocked by the Treasury because it couldn’t be seen to be helping Wall Street benefit once again from the crisis.” Wall Street would have benefited from […]

Parade Magazine decided to subject tens of millions of readers of its Sunday newspaper insert to an anti-Social Security diatribe headlined: “Can We Save Social Security?” Since Social Security is not in any real danger this headline would be like saying “Can We Save Apple or the New York Yankees?” It should not be hard, […]

CNN Money decided to highlight the fact that when the debt increases, interest payments will rise. While those familiar with basic arithmetic probably already understood this fact, CNN Money decided that this is big news. To make this fact more newsworthy, CNN Money decided to say some things that were untrue and some that were […]

That is what Alan Blinder tells us in a Washington Post column today. Blinder tells us that the vast majority of academic economists and people in the financial industry oppose efforts to make the Fed more accountable to Congress. (He also bizarrely asserts that “very, very few” people support more congressional control of the Fed. […]

The NYT has an excellent piece on how the increase in FHA mortgage limits have made it a subsidy program for relatively affluent families, speculators, and frauds. –Dean Baker

David Brooks pronounces the government’s bailout of Wall Street a huge success. This is an interesting assessment. It is true that the financial sector profits are at a record high as a share of all corporate profits and the financial sector has reached a new record share of private sector income, and the industry stands […]

Arghhhhhhh! TARP is a loan program, not a spending program. Let’s explain the difference so that even a Washington Post editor can understand it. A loan is expected to be paid back. When Congress appropriates money for a loan, it does not add to the deficit. The government lends out money, but it owns a […]

That is what readers of Bloomberg’s discussion of the debate over auditing the Fed must think. After all, Bloomberg refers to a “Republican” bill with more than 300 co-sponsors. In the 435 seat House, the 300 co-sponsors of this bill would give the Republicans a comfortable majority. In real world land the Democrats still have […]