Blog: Beat the Press

Morning Edition reported on Spain’s slump this morning. The slump has pushed the unemployment rate into the high teens. At one point the piece presents the views of an economist who asserts that Spain’s fundamentals were sound prior to the downturn. This is not true. Spain had a huge housing bubble that led to a […]

In the U.S. economic growth measures are always presented at annual rates. There is no magic to using annual rates, but it is the convention. This is why it is infuriating to see the NYT use quarterly growth figures in an article reporting on Europe’s growth rate for the fourth quarter of 2009. The use […]

Mervyn King, the head of the United Kingdom’s central bank, is best known for allowing the UK’s housing bubble to expand to a level that was even greater than the bubble in the U.S. At its peak in 2007, house prices in the UK were on average about 10 percent higher than the bubble-inflated prices […]

That is what USA Today claims. It told readers that the Obama administration believes that current saving rates are impairing economic recovery: “It [job growth] will be even tougher if Americans continue to save at high rates — somewhere in the 4% to 7% range — as the White House report predicts they will until […]

The NYT had an article about rising inflation in China. At one point it notes the government’s determination to prevent inflation. It then tells readers that higher inflation may reduce pressure from the U.S. to raise the value of the yuan, since higher inflation in China will make Chinese goods relatively less competitive. It would […]

The NYT had a piece on a deal that Amazon.com made with book publishers which could raise the price of some e-books by as much as 50 percent. At one point the article asserts that readers who might resist this increase don’t understand the economics of publishing: “To consumers who do not pay much attention […]

People making over $225,000 must have it much tougher than the rest of us since the media highlight their problems so frequently. In discussing the housing market and the homebuyers’ tax credit USA Today told readers: “Many potential buyers in higher-price markets such as New York, Boston, Hawaii and San Francisco won’t qualify because their […]

USA Today highlights a new measure of economic activity that is based on truckers’ use of diesel fuel. This is an interesting way to try to get an up-to-date measure of the production and sale of goods in the economy. By contrast GDP numbers only come out quarterly and are not released until a month […]

Congress is debating a jobs bill that is expected to cost around $85 billion. It would be helpful if reporters would put this number in some context. This spending would most take place over the next year and a half. GDP over that period will be approximately $20 trillion, so the projected spending in the […]

The deficit hawks apparently believe that their case is so weak that they must resort to crass jingoism to push their agenda. NBC apparently intends to run a piece on the evening news on Tuesday that talks about the portion of the government debt that is owned foreigners, highlighting the role of China. This is […]