Business Coverage

New York Times Perpetuates the Social Security 'Trust Fund' Myth
By Tom Blumer | December 28, 2015 | 11:52 PM EST

After serving as the virtual mouthpiece for the "there is no crisis!" crowd for at least a decade since George W. Bush's attempt to partially privatize Social Security in 2005, someone at the New York Times has finally recognized that there is one — but still won't level with readers about the system's true condition.

Eduardo Porter "writes the Economic Scene column" for the Times. Before that, "he was a member of the Times editorial board, where he wrote about business, economics, and a mix of other matters." As such, he may well have been the author of some of the Old Gray Lady's opinion pieces opposing any kind of meaningful reform of out-of-control entitlement programs while its reporters gave favorable treatment to demagogues like Harry Reid.

AP Claims Christmas Season 'Spending' Is Up 8 Pct. — Based on Number of Transactions
By Tom Blumer | December 28, 2015 | 5:27 PM EST

As I noted in a pre-Christmas post, "The desperation is palpable at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, over how the Christmas shopping season is going."

Desperation has clearly descended into outright deception at the wire service, where an unbylined story claims that spending is up 8 percent, but that the source involved "does not include spending by dollar amounts." As will be shown shortly, this is a clear attempt to make this year's Christmas shopping season look more than twice as good as it was expected to be.

HuffPo Writer: We Should Unplug Our Energy-Burning Christmas Decorations
By Tom Blumer | December 26, 2015 | 11:30 PM EST

In the annual competition between leftist media outlets for the screwiest (or most Scrooge-like) criticism of Christmas traditions, a Huffingon Post item published Thursday morning by Michael McLaughlin (HT Breitbart) was a formidable entry.

After the HuffPo reporter's headline noted that "U.S. Christmas Lights Burn More Energy Than Some Nations In A Year," he suggested that "maybe we should unplug our decorations."

Confirmed, After 3 Sets of Searches: Relative Media Mentions of 'Christmas Shopping Season' at a 10-Year Low
By Tom Blumer | December 24, 2015 | 10:57 AM EST

Merchants haven't been the only ones discouraging those who work for them from using the word "Christmas" during the Christmas shopping season. The press has been at it for years, and those efforts have brought regrettable results.

This is the eleventh year of an effort I began in 2005. Each year has involved three sets of Google News searches on "Christmas shopping season" and "holiday shopping season" (both terms in quotes) done a few days before Christmas, two weeks earlier, and four weeks earlier. In late November, after doing the first round, I reported that the percentage of "Christmas shopping season" mentions came in "at the lowest level in all of the years I have been tracking." Sadly, with all three rounds now completed, the raw percentage increased a bit from the first round, but the overall result hasn't changed.

WRONG: As Christmas Shopping Disappoints, AP Claims 'Cheap Is the New Chic'
By Tom Blumer | December 23, 2015 | 7:02 PM EST

The desperation is palpable at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, over how the Christmas shopping season is going.

Having appearently learned something contrary to the "consumers will catch up with their spending" we've been hearing from the National Retail Federation and others so far, AP Business Writer Joyce M. Rosenberg shifted gears and decided that consumers are spending less this year on individual gifts because, well, "Cheap is the new chic." Having spoken with one of Rosenburg's sources, readers can be assured that "chic" has absolutely nothing to do with it.

AP Continues to Push Artifically Low 'New Normal' Benchmark For New-Home Sales
By Tom Blumer | December 23, 2015 | 1:28 PM EST

The Census Bureau reported today that new-home sales in November came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 490,000. That was a 4.3 percent increase over October, but it only occurred because October was revised steeply downward by 25,000 to 470,000; August and September were also revised slightly downward. Actual sales were 34,000, the highest November figure during the Obama era but lower than all but three other years since 1970, all during recessions.

It has become painfully clear during the past seven years that the homebuilding industry won't genuinely recover as long as the current reckless Obama fiscal policy and its red tape-infused regime of regulations are in place. So what can an economics writer at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, do to make a "recovery" look at least plausible? Josh Boak's answer: Lower the bar.

AP Tries to Impress With Expected (Really Puny) 'Pickups' in GDP Growth
By Tom Blumer | December 22, 2015 | 6:45 PM EST

Today's release from the government on economic growth estimated that the nation's Gross Domestic Product grew at an annual rate of 2.0 percent in the third quarter, a slight downward revision from November's estimate of 2.1 percent. This continues the economy's dismal, worst-since-World War II growth performance since the recession officially ended over six years ago.

But never fear. According to the Associated Press's headline writers early this afternoon, there is going to be a growth "pickup." Not to be outdone, AP economics writer Martin Crutsinger regaled readers with how the economy will have "stronger growth." Wait til you see what they're talking about. Seldom, if ever, has so much been made of so little (bolds are mine):

CNBC Changes Xmas Shopping Headline From 'Cut Too Deep' to 'Can It Be Saved?'
By Tom Blumer | December 22, 2015 | 3:26 PM EST

Yesterday, CNBC's Krystina Gustafson opened her article about the state of the Christmas shopping season by reporting that "procrastinators around the U.S. provided a much-needed boost to retailers" last weekend, but that "the lift was likely too little too late to salvage a slow start to the holiday shopping season." The story's headline: "Retailers cut too deep to save the holiday season."

Readers who go to the link will not see that headline now. Instead, the headline, contradicting Gustafson's contention that it was probably already too late, now reads: "Can last-minute shoppers save the holiday season?" As seen after the jump, the original downbeat headline remains at Google (which lists original headlines, and as best I can tell doesn't change them if the linked story's headline changes) and Yahoo Finance:

Business Press Exaggerates November Existing-Home Sales Plunge by (As Usual) Ignoring Raw Data
By Tom Blumer | December 22, 2015 | 12:57 PM EST

The business press worships at the altar of seasonally adjusted data. Most journalists covering the economy don't even bother looking at raw, not seasonally adjusted data, which in layman's terms is best understood as "what actually happened." As I have shown for nearly a decade, this is often a big mistake.

On the rare occasions when reporters take the initiative to look at the raw data, they usually ignor it, or fail to grasp its meaning. A perfect example of that phenomenon occurred today at Bloomberg News. The business press is blindly accepting a reported 10.5 percent drop in existing home sales as evidence of all kinds of problems, including — supposedly, but not really — a regulation-driven extension of closing time frames. Though Bloomberg's Victoria Stilwell was astute enough to look at the underlying data, unlike her fellow reporters at the Associated Press and Reuters, she completely ignored how doing so blew up the narrative.

New York Daily News Ridicules 'White Meatheads' Pushing Sam's Club Boycott, But Posts Critical Black Site-Based Video
By Tom Blumer | December 21, 2015 | 8:41 PM EST

Rosalind Brewer is CEO of Sam's Club, the wholesale division of Walmart. Sam's claims that it is "committed to being the most valued membership organization in the world."

Brewer is apparently "committed" to a cause which has become quite a distraction from Sam's core commitment. Last week, she told CNN of a meeting she had with a supplier. Was she interested in getting the best prices and terms to save her members money and otherwise deliver "value"? Apparently not. Instead, she obsessed over the fact that the subject firm's executive team happened to consist exclusively of white men. On Wednesday, David Boroff at the New York Daily News called those who have objected to Brewer's dance on the edges of overt racism stupid white people, i.e., "white meatheads." The far-below-genius white guy here is actually NYDN home page editor Boroff himself. You see, the video posted at the paper's web site is from The Black Sphere, a site operated by Kevin Jackson, a definitely not-white guy.

10 Outrageous Ways the Media Were Anti-Business Activists in 2015
By Julia A. Seymour | December 21, 2015 | 10:09 AM EST

Objective journalism is so old-fashioned. Activism is the new objectivity, at least where the liberal media are concerned.

Rather than reporting as neutral outsiders on matters of race, CNN hosts and guest actually put their hands up in the “Hands up, don’t shoot” pose that never happened while reporting on protests. They seize on mass shootings to repeat calls for stricter gun control.

The sad fact is that many journalists and news publications don’t report on climate change, health care, wages and other economic issues; they promote a liberal agenda with their so-called news. Here are the top 10 ways the media acted as anti-business or anti-capitalism activists in the past year.

AP's D'Innocenzio Makes Disappointing Online Sales Growth Seem Strong
By Tom Blumer | December 20, 2015 | 10:57 AM EST

What little remains of the economy's momentum appears to be riding on Christmas season consumer spending being perceived as strong. Unfortunately, it hasn't been.

Following up on her early Friday excuse-making for why things haven't gone too well at the malls so far — it's because the weather has just been too darned nice — Anne D'Innocenzio at the Associated Press worked over the available statistics to leave readers with the impression that it's not all that bad, and that there's plenty of time for a comeback. The linchpin of her effort is her claim that online sales continue to grow nicely. That's not so.