Dean Baker

The WSJ eagerly touted the good news on September retail sales with the headline: “Clouds Break as September Retail Sales Rise.” The good news touted in the article is that an index of same store sales for 30 major retail chains came in 0.9 percent higher in September of 2009 than September of 2008. (The […]

The headline of a WSJ article on new budget estimates and proposals for boosting the economy told readers that: “deficit complicates push on jobs.” It is not clear why. The main reason that the country has a large deficit is that we are suffering a severe recession. If we didn’t have a severe recession, then […]

Keeping with the fraternity ritual of presenting readers with meaningless numbers the Washington Post told readers that President Obama’s proposed expansion of the Pell Grant program will increase spending by $40 billion over the next decade. This number is completely meaningless to virtually all readers of the Washington Post — if you added or removed […]

How many NYT readers know how much the government is projected to spend over the next decade? How many know how large the economy is projected to be? The paper has a well-educated readership, but my guess is that the answer to both questions would be less than 1.0 percent. This raises the question of […]

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) presented its year-end estimate of the fiscal year 2009 deficit yesterday. NPR told listeners: “the Congressional Budget Office estimate, while expected, is bad news for the White House and its allies in Congress as they press ahead with health care overhaul legislation that could cost $900 billion over the next […]

The NYT told readers that the investments needed to curtail global warming would cost the world $10 trillion over the years from 2010 to 2030. It would have been helpful to also note that global GDP will be around $1500 trillion over this period, so that the estimated cost of these measures would be equal […]

That’s the question millions of NYT readers will be asking after seeing this article. The article raises concerns about the declining importance of the dollar as an international currency and in particular the possibility that commodities like oil will no longer be traded in dollars. While the fear that oil exporters will no longer demand […]

The NYT warns readers that the credit markets are still facing “paralysis.” It notes the decline in loans and especially securitized loans, for residential mortgages, commercial mortgages, and consumer debt. While the numbers are accurate, the article completely ignores the demand side of the equation. There has been enormous overbuilding in both the residential and […]

The NYT reported on discussions in the Obama administration to implement a tax credit of $3,000 for companies that hire additional workers. The hope of course is that this will be a spur to job growth. Most studies show that labor demand is highly inelastic (this is why increases in the minimum wage have little […]

An NYT piece discussing the Obama’s administration’s plans to provide further stimulus to the economy implies that the economy is somehow doing better than expected. At one point commenting that: “the $787 billion recovery plan was intended to stretch over two years, partly in anticipation that the downturn would be prolonged.” This sentence appeared after […]