FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Thirteen former Democratic governors urged Congress to approve fast-track trade authority to facilitate the passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Pact (TTIP). The most newsworthy aspect of the letter is that the governors apparently do not understand the basic economics of trade.
The ultimate myth is that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is about anything other than corporate profits.
The question here is pretty simple, in spite of Robert Samuelson’s efforts to sow confusion. There is very little plausible benefit from raising interest rates and slowing the economy at a point where the economy is far below its potential by almost any measure.
Most of us recognize that politicians don’t always reveal their true thoughts. We know what they say their priorities are, but only a mind-reader would try to tell us what they really think.
Clearly there are judges who are too lenient and accept claims that probably should be denied; however, there are also judges who are too harsh and reject claims that should probably be approved.
An over-valued dollar hurts the workers who are subject to international competition to the benefit of workers who are largely protected from international competition.
Robert Samuelson says if we had kept up the rates of productivity growth we had until 1973, it would have mattered much more to middle-income families’ living standards than the rise in inequality since 1980. This is true in the sense of “if I were six feet five inches, I would be taller than I am,” but it’s not clear what we should make of the point.
During the week of September 15, the country’s economic leaders did a quick 180-degree turn: They went from assuring us that the economy was just fine to telling us that the bottom was about to fall out and a second Great Depression loomed just over the horizon. The one hope was a massive $700 billion […]
At this point, it is no longer possible to contest the fact that there has been an enormous upward redistribution of income since 1980. Dozens of economists have reached the same conclusion, using different methodologies and different data sets (e.g., The State of Working America, 2006-07, Lawrence Mishel et al.; “Where Did the Productivity Growth […]
In All the President’s Men, Carl Woodward and Bob Bernstein’s classic account of the Watergate scandal, their secret inside source, “Deep Throat,” repeatedly told them to “follow the money.” But when it came to reporting on the debate over a Medicare prescription drug benefit, the New York Times and Washington Post repeatedly told readers not […]
It is routine to present the stock market’s performance as a measure of the economy’s health: When it goes up, this is routinely reported as good news, whereas a drop is presumed to be grounds for concern about the strength of the economy. “Here at home some good news from Wall Street today,” Tom Brokaw […]
It would be hard to imagine more inaccurate and biased economic reporting than the coverage of international trade issues. Those who get their information on trade issues solely from the major media outlets are almost certainly more misinformed and confused than those who never pay any attention to trade issues at all. This is not […]
