Dean Baker

The Post reported on the rise in consumption spending in August and noted the rise in purchases of non-durable goods. It qualified the 1.0 percent reported increase, saying: “still, August is the peak of the back-to-school shopping season, and many states held sales-tax holidays to encourage consumers to spend — another temporary government stimulus.” States […]

It is amazing how much utter nonsense otherwise respectable news outlets will repeat about Social Security. The country is suffering the worst downturn in 70 years because the geniuses who run the Fed and Treasury could not see an $8 trillion housing bubble and let the Wall Street crew run wild with fraudulent loans and […]

The Washington Post reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to raise the income at which a surtax would to finance health care spending would kick in from the $350,000 in bills passed by House committees. She reportedly said the tax should only apply to millionaires. Almost everyone with an income of more than $350,000 […]

Listeners to Morning Edition might have been asking that question when they heard a segment debating whether a commitment to lower drug prices to seniors by $80 billion was an adequate concession. It would have been almost impossible for any listener to assess the significance of this concession, since they do not know how much […]

That would be a reasonable question since they seem to be possessed with irrational fears. According to the NYT, Senator John Ensign said that he voted against a public plan because it will eventually take over the insurance market: “Once it’s started, you will never get rid of it. Congress will subsidize it more and […]

The Post helped to promote completely baseless fears about health care rationing today, at one point telling readers the views of “medical professionals” that: “the question, they say, is not whether there will be rationing, but rather what will be rationed, and when and how.” This is of course not true. No one is currently […]

If you’re wondering where the money you give to charities goes, USA Today has the answer for you: outlandish CEO pay. The article reports that many CEOs of non-profits take home multiple millions every year. As the article notes, it’s likely that many of the people who contribute to these organizations had no idea how […]

The NYT presented this assertion from a Columbia University professor in an article on the future of socialist political parties in Europe. It provides no background or context. On its face, the assertion seems obviously wrong. Countries like Denmark and Sweden with very strong welfare states have maintained healthy rates of growth and low rates […]

Yes, it is cruel to dredge up past mistakes, but this one is so utterly off the wall that it deserves another go around. Here’s what the Washington Post Outlook section had to say about the economy the day before Lehman collapsed. I would feel bad, except I know what they would do if the […]

That might be the agenda after presenting the views of professional global warming trivializer Bjorn Lomborg on today’s oped page. Lomborg warns readers not only about the cost of curtailing global warming, relying on an outlier among economists in his estimates of the cost of curtailing emissions and the benefits from doing so, he also […]