Blog: Beat the Press

Those who favor affirmative action for people with no discernible skills undoubtedly appreciate Dana Milbank’s page 2 column in the Washington Post. Today Mr. Milbank used his column to tell the world that he knows absolutely nothing about economics. The theme of the piece was that in ten years the United States will be like […]

In an article about the increasing number of people receiving long-term unemployment benefits the Post told readers that to have a labor force suited for the jobs of the future: “the Obama administration has tried to address that by investing heavily in education, clean energy and scientific research.” Actually, the Obama administration’s investments in education […]

There is a line being pushed by some on the right (e.g. David Brooks today) that small businesses are putting off hiring because of uncertainty over the costs they may face from health care reform, global warming restrictions, or other tax and regulatory changes. It is understandable that small businesses would be reluctant to commit […]

I was one of the economists who thought the February jobs report was relatively good given the weather. Still, that was only compared with an expectation of a very bad report. The WSJ went a bit overboard with a headline: “Outlook Brightens for Jobless.” The report still showed a loss of 36,000 jobs. It is […]

Robert Samuelson argues that they will. Samuelson apparently believes that people’s standard of living is determined only by their tax bill. According to Samuelson’s world view, Bill Gates is much worse off than the typical middle class family because he pays so much more in taxes. Of course in real world land, well-being is determined […]

The NYT has a piece discussing efforts by Ford and GM to improve their quality. There is a chart accompanying the article showing the trend in complaints for the three automakers over the last decade. It shows a sharp drop in complaints by model year for both Ford and GM, while the numbers for Toyota […]

The NYT’s piece on Iceland’s referendum on using public money to pay debts to foreign bank depositors failed to explain the real issues involved. During the boom, several Icelandic banks courted deposits outside the country, mostly in the UK and the Netherlands, by offering higher interest rates. The banks then used these deposits to finance […]

Just about every member of Congress supports protecting one or more domestic industries from foreign competition. For example, no member has publicly endorsed opening up our health care system to greater international competition. Therefore, describing a member of Congress as “anti-free trade” is misleading since the description would apply to every member of Congress. In […]

The House just approved a $15 billion jobs bill that was already passed by the Senate. Will it help the economy? The NYT told readers that Representative Bob Etheridge, “estimated that the measure could create one million jobs.” It then quoted Republican Representative Steven LaTourette saying that: “This is a no-jobs bill, this is a […]

The NYT told readers the defense spending in the United States is equal to 4.0 percent of GDP. The Congressional Budget Office reports that it was 4.6 percent of GDP in fiscal 2009 and will be 4.7 percent of GDP in fiscal years 2010 and 2011. –Dean Baker