Blog: Beat the Press

The New York Times ran a front page story on Sunday that could have been a case study of why it is essential to put budget numbers in context. The article, “Medicaid Rule For Immigrants May Bar Others,” explains how new rules intended to prevent illegal immigrants from getting Medicaid may also prevent many eligible […]

I want to follow up quickly to a couple of notes on my posting where I referred to the “Die at the Border” policy. I was not arguing for open borders. I don’t think that anyone who has given the issue serious thought advocates open borders, since a literal open border policy would almost certainly […]

The elections in Italy prompted another round of knowing comments about how Europeans must get over their silly attachment to employment security (e.g. “Europe Stalls on Road to Economic Change“). None of the comments I saw even considered the possibility that the contractionary policies of the European Central Bank (ECB) play any role in Europe’s […]

One of the great absurdities in the debate over immigration policy is the frequently repeated claim that the U.S. economy is generating more “low wage” jobs than can be filled by the domestic workforce. This line has been endlessly repeated in news stories on the issue. Quick trip back to econ 101: recall the concepts […]

A couple of days ago, I gave my standard diatribe about the importance of putting numbers in context, especially budget numbers, which as isolated billions or trillions are virtually meaningless to the typical reader. In some cases, the issue is not just one of being uninformative, it’s also a question of actually being wrong. In […]