Mainstream Media: Good U.S. Economic News Drives Them Up the Wall

Consider This
by 3-wood



Here's something that should drive the MSM up a wall.

Consumer-level inflation's tame in April, U.S. says

"WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) ~
Growth in consumer prices came in below expectations for April even as food prices rose at the sharpest rate in 18 years, a government report showed Wednesday.

The consumer price index rose a moderate 0.2% last month, the Labor Department said.
Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the core consumer price index increased 0.1%.
Inflation was just a bit weaker than expected, but financial markets welcomed the April CPI figures.
Consumer prices are up 3.9% in the past 12 months; core inflation is running at a 2.3% pace."

Analysis

You always want to be careful of numbers compared to "expectations", cause those expectations could have been rational or they could have been dippy. So your really want to look at the hard numbers and see what that tells you. In this case it's good news.

With inflation at 0.2% in April (annualizes to 2.4% at that rate), CPI up 3.9% in the past year including energy and 2.3% without, inflation is still relatively under control. To put this into perspective, China was up 8.5% from April 2007 to April 2008.

This U.S. inflation news is important for the following reason. The Federal Reserve Bank can either try to avoid a recession by keeping rates low (and thus expanding the money supply) to grow the economy or try to avoid inflation by raising rates (thus contracting the money supply) and slowing down the economy. so far the Fed's have chosen the first option. This relatively good inflation news means that the Fed's should be able to keep rates low for the time being and buy some time for the economy to heal and move forward.
Which of course is a good thing for the U.S.

Like I say, that should drive the MSM up a wall.

by 3-wood

[NOTE: The incomparable Babba Zee sent us this post from the Outraged Spleen of Zion. Babba labors without rest, day and night, to expose the nastiness of modern and post-modern fascism, Nazism, Communism, Gramarian Whorism, and various other -ISMs and woes that afflict this Spaceship Earth. Professor 3-wood was kind enough to post this piece on the U.S. economy and the Mainstream Media--which gave Babba a break.]

image: Outraged Spleen of Zion
Source: Consider This: by 3-wood
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America's Economy: Resilient or Declining?

Is America in Economic Decline?



America in economic decline?

Everyday, it seems there is a new economic statistic about a weakening US economy or a news report about the US$ dropping in value against other currencies.

My answer is: NO.

Maybe right now the dollar is at a low level and portions of the American economy could be better, but the overall economy is solid and the dollar weakness is temporary. If you read history, it seems to be a good rule to never underestimate the American people or our economy. In fact, i think some of the nation's best economic times lie ahead.

I'm writing this mostly because I'm a member of a very popular website called Little Green Footballs (www.littlegreenfootballs.com). Due to my online name (chicagodudewhotrades) I get asked a lot of stock market and economic questions by my fellow LGF'ers. Writing this I hope will help my LGF friends out. This is my first attempt at writing something like this, so don't beat me up too bad!!!

I'm also writing this because I get tired of the mostly negative coverage of the economy by the national media. This is my small attempt to try and convince my fellow Americans that the economy isn't as bad as portrayed.

What gives me the right to write about economic issues? In a word: Nothing. I'm not a economist or a CEO of a business. I don't have a Ph.D in Economics or International Finance. The bulk of my professional trading experience comes from several years spent working as a clerk in the trading pits of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. However, I have been able to make a decent living from day-trading the last few years. Day-trading is a very brutal, Darwinian profession. You either make money at this or go bankrupt. I'm still doing this, so I figure my ideas and advice have some credibility.

I think the best way to explain why I believe America's best economic days are ahead of us is to run down what is happening in the world and what I think may happen in the future.

ALSO at DBKP.com: * The Mainstream Media's Shifting Economic Definitions: A Reflection of MSM's Woes * The Mainstream Media's Recession Obsession

Europe

The European Union has become a huge entity whose member states have a combined population of nearly 500 Million (1). However, I have come to believe that they are too big, too slow ,and most damaging, too bureaucratic.

Yes, right now the Euro is doing well against the Dollar. However, people seem to forget that a few years ago, the euro was trading at a record low of 82 cents against the dollar. (2)

Inflation is above the European Central Bank's public goal of 2% and rising (3). Western Europe has also always had systematic higher unemployment historically than the US. Eventually, economic fundamentals like these will catch up to the Euro.

You may read a lot about the grim future of Social Security. That is true. Basically, starting in a few years, more money will start being taken out of the program than going into it. However, Europe faces the same demographic issue. The big difference is that the working-age population of Europe is declining while America's is increasing.

Asia

Today when you think of Asia, one country comes to mind: China. China is a huge country with a huge population. Because of low wages, China has become the manufacturing center of the world. All that manufacturing has brought huge sums of wealth into China.

But China has many issues. All that manufacturing has lead to huge environmental problems (4). Thanks to China's brutal 1-child policy and a Asian cultural preference for male babies, China has demographic imbalances in their youngest generations. How can a nation be successful with a demographic imbalance like that? China's biggest problem however, may be it's own Communist government. Folks, I don't know any other way to say it.: Communism , Socialism, etc, just doesn't work.. Eventually, China will pay a huge price because of their system of government. Free, democratic, open market economies work, nothing else comes close. It is truly that simple and basic.



Africa

It is hard to write off a entire continent, but unfortunately that is what I'm basically doing with Africa. I don't think Africa has moved beyond a tribal identity yet. They will not grow or be economically successful until the people of Africa start thinking in terms of national identities and not just tribal.

Middle East

Currently the Middle East is doing well because of high oil prices that bring huge amounts of wealth into their nations. Historically, however nations with commodity-dependent economies do not succeed in the long run. There is a theory in economic circles called the "commodity curse" . The theory states that commodity-dependent nations get politically and economically lazy because of the easy money pouring into their economy. I think this will happen in the Middle East someday. The Mid-East has one principle export: oil. What happens when that export runs out? There are questions about the true proven reserves of both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (5). Back in the late 1990's when oil prices were low. Saudi government bonds were rated "junk" status. This will give you a idea of what happens to the economic prospects of the region when the wells run dry.


Latin America

Latin America seems to be taken a turn for the worse lately. A couple governments seem to be going back down the Socialist path. Once again, democratic free market economies work, everything else doesn't come close. Democratic open market Brazil and Colombia are doing well. The ones going down the socialist path like Venezuela and Bolivia will have problems.

I see some parallels between the Middle East of today and the Japan of the 1980's. Remember how everyone thought back then that "Japan, Inc." was going to be the world's largest economy and how they would be the globe's dominant economic power? How did that work out for Japan? I do think that the sub-prime mess and resulting housing price slump will continue to hurt the American economy.But this is a incredibly flexible economy that will survive this mess. In fact, i think the sub-prime problem will hurt other economies worse than ours just because our national economy is so resilient and others aren't.

by Chicagodudewhotrades
images: thetropics; caglecartoons
Sources:
1. Website of the European Union www.europa.eu
2. Wikipedia's entry for the Euro Currency
3. Website of the European Central Bank www.ecb.eu
4. Financial Times article. China Report. Environment: 'Devasting price to pay for rampant growth' By Jamil Anderlini. Published: 9 Oct 2007
5. Reuters. "Kuwait oil reserves only half official estimate-PIW" . Published 20 Jan 2006
Also posted at:
* Guest Post: Is America in Economic Decline?
* The News of America's Economic Death is Greatly Exaggerated


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Mainstream Media Economic Reporting: The Depression is Here

"Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours."

Perhaps the above Ronald Reagan quote is a good example of why the Mainstream Media is so gloomy about the economy.

If you're employed by the MSM, job cuts and downsizing is not only a fact of life, there's no end in sight for the members of the Media Pampered Class. It's easy to see why the MSM talking heads are so obsessed with any bad economic news: if arrogance and conservative-bashing are no longer enough to ensure one's continued employment in the MSM, then the economy MUST be in shambles.

Red Planet Cartoons has a good point in their latest, "Hoping for Recession". The Mainstreamers reported unemployment of 5.4% during the Bill Clinton re-election campaign as the attainment of Nirvana.

Now, with unemployment just having reached 5.1%, their reporting is anything but subtle: it's the end of the U.S. economic world.

John Hindraker of Powerline asks a question that everyone (outside the DNC and the MSM itself) already knows the answer to: "Still, it makes you wonder: is the current hysterical treatment of economic news the product of a rational evaluation of the data, or is it just one more sign of the media’s desire to put a Democrat in the White House in 2009?

Do you remember 1996, when Bill Clinton swept to an easy re-election victory over Bob Dole, on the basis of what pretty much everyone in the press considered a near-perfect economy? No “pink slip nation” in 1996!

Actually, though, the unemployment rate in November 1996, when Clinton rode a soaring economy to victory, was 5.4%. That’s right–three tenths of a percent higher than the “grim picture” of a “pink slip nation” painted by this month’s unemployment report.

Of course, that's one component to the Mainstream's OC economic reporting behavior. The other one is that many reporters are mistaking the economic condition of the Mainstream Media for the economy as a whole.

NO wonder they're so gloomy: more MSM job cuts mean the number of
unemployed MSM hack reporters will continue to swell.

As we said a month ago in Mainstream Media--New Cutbacks in Jobs, Bureaus, Stock Prices, Advertising, Ratings: "The MSM tries to put the blame for their decline on the medium and hopes to counter it by creating blogs on the Internet. One suspects that they won't be selling anything different on their MSM blogs--and the public won't be doing any buying of their news there, either."

Some MSM reporters are deeply partisan, Democrat Party-oriented publicity hacks masquerading as objective reporters of the news. But not all of them.

And while the U.S. economy does have some problems--as all economies do--readers who only get their news from the Mainstream Media would be completely misinformed as to the state of the economic union.

The non-stop beating of the Mainstream Media bad economic news drums offers proof that the few non-partisan MSM reporters were either asleep during Econ 101 or substituting their own personal economic worries for the U.S. economy.

If the Mainstream reporters had any economic knowledge, they'd know that when customers (readers and viewers) aren't buying what a business is selling, that business has to change or go under. The MSM seems determined not to change: that leaves only one alternative.

Or, as Ronald Reagan might have put it, "The depression has reached the Mainstream Media."

by Mondoreb

[Red Planet Cartoons has a nice collection of links and other sources on this MSM obsession with recession and the strangely partisan definition they use of "bad economic news", depending on who's in the White House. "Hoping for Recession"]

Sources:
* Pink Slip Nation
* Hoping for Recession
* Mainstream Media's Recession Obsession
* Mainstream Media Cuts: Jobs, Bureaus, Stock Prices, Advertising, Ratings


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Democrat Economics 101: The Prosperity Killers

With all the moving, we don't want to forget the good folks over at Red Planet Cartoons. The latest RP theme is "The Prosperity Killers".

[T]he Democratic presidential candidates are presenting economic plans that are chock-full of ideas that reduce economic growth, rather than expanding it.

Of course, they know that.

They're also betting that they can hoodwink enough suckers to make it worth their political while. Rhetoric is the politician's weapon of choice.

Whenever a politician starts talking about "socking it to the rich", hold on to your wallet. One thing you'll never hear at a Clinton or Obama rally is how the top 5% wealthiest Americans pay over 50% of the taxes.

That wouldn't piss off any of their supporters.

It's a whole lot easier to fire up the troops if they're upset.

When Democrats talk about "soaking the rich", it always seems that working stiffs are the ones who end up getting wet.

As usual, Red Planet has some great links to back up the cartoon at the top of the post.

"The Prosperity Killers" is just a reminder of the old saying: TANSTAAFL.

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

by Mondoreb
image: Red Planet Cartoons
Source: The Prosperity Killers


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DBKP Today in Weird History: February 28, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, GOLD, PROGRESS, POLITICS, MAFIA, SCIENCE, ASSASSINATION, POLICE STATE, ATHEISTS, ECONOMY, NANNY STATE, SHOOT OUTS, SLEEPING, WITCHES, EXODUS, PATENTS, SEALS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, NAZIS, SMOOTH, POPULATION, KILLER WHALES, POGRAMS, DRUG WAR, SPIES, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

POLICE STATE

1993 A gun battle erupted at a compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to serve warrants on the Branch Davidians; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began.

1994 Brady Law, imposing a wait-period to buy a hand-gun, went into effect.

WAR!

1847 US defeats México in battle of Sacramento.

1917 AP reports México & Japan will ally with Germany if US enters WWI.

TERRORISM

1982 FALN (PR Nationalist Group) bombs Wall Street.

2007 A federal judge in Miami ruled that suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla was competent to stand trial on terrorism support charges, rejecting arguments that he was severely damaged by 3 1/2 years of interrogation and isolation in a military brig.

DISASTER

1704 Indians attack Deerfield MA, kill 40, kidnap 100.

1844 A 12-inch gun aboard the USS Princeton exploded, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer and several others.

1888 Ferry in San Pablo Bay explodes.

1956 13 die in a train crash in Swampscott MA.

1975 More than 40 people were killed in London's Underground when a subway train smashed into the end of a tunnel.

1997 Earthquake in Pakistan, kills 45.

SLEEPING

1646 Roger Scott was tried in Massachusetts for sleeping in church.

EXODUS

1879 "Exodus of 1879" southern blacks flee political/economic exploitation.

SEALS

1913 6.8-m, 4000-kg elephant seal killed, South Georgia (South Atlantic).

SMOOTH

1935 Nylon discovered by Dr Wallace H Carothers.

POGROMS

1988 Anti-Armenian pogrom in Azerbaijan, 30 killed.

KILLER WHALES

1977 1st killer whale born in captivity (Marineland, Los Angeles CA).

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1940 1st televised basketball game (college game at NYC's Madison Square Garden-University of Pittsburgh beats Fordham U, 50-37).

1983 Final TV episode of "MASH" airs (CBS); record 125 million watch.

1984 26th Grammy Awards Beat It, Michael Jackson wins 8.

1989 Memo by Bryant Gumbel criticizing Today Show co-workers becomes public.

POPULATION

1940 US population at 131,669,275 (12,865,518 blacks (9.8%)).

SPIES

1997 FBI agent Earl Pitts pleads guilty to selling secrets to Russia.

DRUG WAR

1990 Dutch police seize 3,000 kg of cocaine.

NAZIS

1933 German President Von Hindenburg abolishes free expression of opinion. Hitler disallows German communist party (KPD).

GOLD!

1849 The California gold rush began in earnest as regular steamship service started bringing gold-seekers to San Francisco.

WITCHES

1692 Salem witch hunt begins.

PROGRESS

1827 The first U.S. railroad chartered to carry passengers and freight, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co., was incorporated by the state of Maryland. It ran from Baltimore to Wheeling, WV (then part of Virginia).

1970 Bicycles permitted to cross Golden Gate Bridge.

POLITICS

1854 Republican Party formally organized at Ripon WI.

1859 Arkansas legislature requires free blacks to choose exile or slavery.

1861 The Territories of Colorado and Nevada organized.

1961 JFK names Henry Kissinger special advisor.

MAFIA

1951 The Senate committee headed by Estes Kefauver, D-Tenn., issued an interim report saying at least two major crime syndicates were operating in the U.S.

PATENTS

1893 Edward Acheson, Pennsylvania, patents an abrasive he names "carborundum".

1956 Forrester issued a patent for computer core memory.

SHOOT-OUTS

1997 In North Hollywood, Calif., two heavily armed masked robbers bungled a bank heist and came out firing, unleashing their arsenal on police, bystanders, cars and TV choppers before they were killed.

NANNY STATE

1871 2nd Enforcement Act gives federal control of congressional elections.

1997 Smokers must prove they are over 18 to purchase cigarettes in US.

1998 In their weekly radio addresses, President Clinton and the Republicans sparred over education, with Clinton describing tests showing American high school students lagging behind those of other industrial nations as a "wake-up call" while the Republicans blamed the disappointing results on a "hungry bureaucracy in Washington" that gobbled up education funds.

2003 The Food and Drug Administration announced that every bottle of ephedra would soon bear stern warnings that the popular herb could cause heart attacks or strokes, even kill.

ATHEISTS

2003 The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stood by its ruling that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was unconstitutional because of the words "under God."

REVOLT

1708 Slave revolt, Newton, Long Island NY, 11 die.

ECONOMY

1982 AT&T looses record $7 BILLION for fiscal year ending on this day.

2007 Wall Street rebounded fitfully from the previous session's 416-point plunge in the Dow industrials as investors took comfort from comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that he still expected moderate economic growth.

SCIENCE

1953 Scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick announced they had discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule that contains the human genes.

2003 NASA released video taken aboard Columbia that had miraculously survived the fiery destruction of the space shuttle with the loss of all seven astronauts; in the footage, four of the crew members can be seen doing routine chores and admiring the view outside the cockpit.

ASSASSINATION

1908 Failed assassination attempt on Shah Mohammed Ali in Teheran.

1986 Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot to death in central Stockholm.

BORN

1824 Charles Blondin France, acrobat/aerialist.

1928 Smokey The Bear.

1943 Donny Iris, singer.

BIRTHDAYS

Actor Charles Durning is 85. Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Josef Stalin, is 82. Actor Gavin MacLeod is 77. Actor Don Francks is 76. Actor-director-dancer Tommy Tune is 69. Auto racer Mario Andretti is 68. Singer Joe South is 68. Actor Frank Bonner is 66. Actress Kelly Bishop is 64. Football player Bubba Smith is 63. Actress Stephanie Beacham is 61. Actress Mercedes Ruehl is 60. Actress Bernadette Peters is 60. Comedian Gilbert Gottfried is 53. Basketball player Adrian Dantley is 52. Actor John Turturro is 51. Rock singer Cindy Wilson is 51. Actress Rae Dawn Chong is 47. Actor Robert Sean Leonard is 39. Rock singer Pat Monahan is 39. Actress Maxine Bahns is 37. Country singer Jason Aldean is 31. Actor Bobb'e J. Thompson is 12.

DEATH

1966 Charles A Bassett II astronaut, dies in a crash of T-38 jet at 34.

1966 Elliot McKay See Jr astronaut, dies in T-38 jet crash at 38.

1977 Eddie "Rochester" Anderson comedian (Jack Benny Show), dies at 71.

2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. died in New York at age 89.

February 28, the 59th day of 2008. There are 307 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: crimtrials
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



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Red Planet Cartoons:Tax Cuts For Dummies

For the those who flunked Econ 101 (apparently most of the Democrats on the tax-writing committees in Congress) and those who want an informative look at tax cuts and how they spur economic growth, Red Planet Cartoons has an extremely instructive and completely painless lesson. The above cartoon is only the overview.

Go check it out. Don't be a tax cut dummy.




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