That's what millions of readers of this front page NYT article, headlined "Deficit Hits $1.4 Trillion, Complicating Stimulus Plans," are asking. As the article itself notes, the recent numbers on the deficit are $200 billion below the August projection from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and $400 billion below the projection from the Office of Management and Budget. Given the new information about the deficit, a more reasonable headline would have been, "Lower Than Expected Deficit Leaves Room for Stimulus," since the government can now spend $200-$400 billion and still have a lower debt than what was projected just two months ago. In an article that explicitly balances the cost of the deficit with the cost of foregoing stimulus it would have been appropriate to include some discussion of projected unemployment rates. CBO projects that unemployment will average 10.2 percent next year and even in 2012 it will average 7.3 percent. This number is higher than in any year since 1992, on an age-adjusted basis the unemployment rate would be higher than in any year since 1983. The Post seems to have the same problem with its own front page article. Remember the good old days when newspapers put their editorials on the editorial page and saved the front page for news?
--Dean Baker
