Martin Crutsinger

AP's Crutsinger Acknowledges Likely Q1/15 Contraction; Rugaber Ignores
By Tom Blumer | May 5, 2015 | 8:55 PM EDT

It appears that someone might need to schedule an intervention with the Associated Press's economics writers.

In his dispatch published a half-hour after the government's March release on international trade at 8:30 this morning, the wire service's Martin Crutsinger quoted a normally upbeat economist who was singing the blues about the result's effect on previously reported first-quarter economic growth. Now, he said, the economy "undoubtedly contracted slightly in the first quarter" by an estimated 0.3 percent. But about an hour later, the AP's Christopher Rugaber ignored this assessment — and that of many others — in his writeup covering the 10 a.m. release of the Institute for Supply Management's Non-Manufacuring Index. Don't these guys talk to each other?

At AP, 1.9 Percent 2nd-Quarter Growth Would Be 'A Significant Rebound'
By Tom Blumer | May 4, 2015 | 6:14 PM EDT

At the Associated Press today, Martin Crutsinger's coverage of the Census Bureau's March Factory Orders report admitted that a leading economic forecasting firm currently believes that the economy will grow at an annualized rate of just 1.9 percent in the second quarter.

Despite the fact that just about everyone who is anyone had until very recently been saying that the figure will be 3 percent or more, Crutsinger wrote once that achieving that mediocre 1.9 percent result would constitute a "rebound," and another time that it would be "a significant rebound." So much for genuinely great expectations.

At AP, One Month of Strong Consumer Spending Marks a 'Spring Awakening'
By Tom Blumer | May 2, 2015 | 10:31 AM EDT

On Thurday, the government, apparently as determined as the press to create good news where there is none, opened its March report on Personal Income and Outlays as follows: "Personal income increased $6.2 billion, or less than 0.1 percent." Yeah, it was so much less than 0.1 percent that it rounded down to 0.0 percent in current dollars in the table which followed. In real terms, i.e., after adjusting for inflation, personal income fell by 0.2 percent.

Naturally, the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, joined in on the spin. Excited over the fact that spending rose by 0.4 percent (0.3 percent in real terms) despite the income decline, AP's headline writers went all-in: "SPRING AWAKENING: US CONSUMER SPENDING ROSE IN MARCH." Martin Crutsinger's coverage was also predictably rosy, and of course played the weather card:

AP's Crutsinger Cites Weather Three Times in Excusing Construction Spending Dive
By Tom Blumer | May 1, 2015 | 10:04 PM EDT

The so-called experts supposedly took March's worse than usual weather in many parts of the country into account when they predicted that this morning's March Construction Spending report from the Census Bureau would come in with a seasonally adjusted increase of 0.4 percent or 0.5 percent. Instead, the result was a decline 0.6 percent, "unexpectedly" sending that metric to a six-month low.

Nevertheless, the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger, clearly having run out of substantive reasons to be optimistic, cited the weather as either a factor in March's result or its improvement as a reason why things really, really will get better later this year three different times (weather-related citations in bold):

AP's Crutsinger Ignores Recession Red Flag, But Has Obsessed Over Potential Recessions During GOP Administrations
By Tom Blumer | April 24, 2015 | 10:52 PM EDT

Today's Census Bureau report on durable goods orders was like a poorly made cake with delicious frosting: tasty at first, but awful when fully experienced.

The frosting in today's report was that overall orders increased in March by a seasonally adjusted 4.0 percent. The trouble is that an important, widely recognized element of that report — what the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger vaguely described as "a key category that serves as a proxy for future business investment" — came in with yet another minus sign. That category's 0.5 percent decline, though noted, had far more significance than Crutsinger gave it.

Bloomberg, AP Sharply Differ in Evaluating Ominous March Retail Sales Report
By Tom Blumer | April 14, 2015 | 10:51 PM EDT

Today, the Census Bureau reported that retail sales in March increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.9 percent. While that was the first such positive figure in four months, it was less than the 1.1 percent increase analysts expected, and did little to calm fears that the economy contracted during the first quarter of 2015.

An unbylined report at Bloomberg News and a dispatch from Josh Boak at the Associated Press had sharply differing takes on what the result meant. Longtime readers probably won't have a difficult time guessing who had the bigger set of blinders on. 

In Low-Visibility Report, AP's Crutsinger Masks Spike in Federal Spending
By Tom Blumer | April 14, 2015 | 2:01 PM EDT

Late Monday afternoon, the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger produced a typically dodgy dispatch on the government's Monthly Treasury Statement. The Treasury Department released the March version of that report covering the first six months of the current fiscal year early Monday afternoon.

The odd thing is, while it has been published elsewhere at the web sites of certain of its subscribers, a search on "budget deficit" (not in quotes) at the wire service's national site indicates that it's not present there at all. The national site's only mention of March's deficit is in the sixth of 13 listings at a "Business Highlights" summary. It reads as follows (bolds are mine throughout this post):

Bill Daley: 'Uneven' Recovery Has Only Benefited 'A Small Slice'
By Tom Blumer | April 13, 2015 | 4:07 PM EDT

Well, this is awkward.

Undermining most of what the business press has done to try to portray the post-recession U.S. economy as performing adequately under President Barack Obama, Bill Daley, Obama’s former chief of staff, told CNBC today that Hillary Clinton "can’t run as the third term of Barack Obama economically," because the recovery has been "uneven" and has only benefited "a small slice" of U.S. households.

AP Buries, Downplays Grim Wholesale Sales Data
By Tom Blumer | April 9, 2015 | 2:07 PM EDT

It took the Associated Press barely 2-1/2 hours to bury the bad news in the Census Bureau's 10 a.m. release on February wholesale sales and inventories.

As of 12:32 Eastern Time, Martin Crutsinger's 10:21 a.m. time-stamped story was not present at the AP's Top 10 Business stories page (saved at my host for future reference), making it quite likely that the news won't get much prominence at the wire service's subscribing print, online and broadcast outlets. But the four hours-old ho-hum news that seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims remained below the 300,000 level commonly seen as potentially troublesome was still on display.

Whiplash at AP: Economy, 'Really Durable' Last Week, Now 'Has Been Flagging For Months'
By Tom Blumer | April 4, 2015 | 10:27 AM EDT

Chickens came home to roost yesterday at the Associated Press.

The AP, the economy's most consistent cheerleader when a Democrat is in office, has not only been ignoring and downplaying the significance of disappointing and negative reports for several months, pinning its claim that all is well on the streak of seasonally adjusted 200,000-plus job gains seen during the past 12 months. It has also been pretending that all is really well. Just a week ago, the wire service's Marin Crutsinger falsely touted how the economy's "growth spurt" since the recession ended 5-1/2 years ago, while "sluggish," has been "one of the most durable since World War II."

Consumer Spending Disappoints; Bloomberg, AP Both Blame Weather
By Tom Blumer | March 30, 2015 | 10:27 AM EDT

The government's report on consumer spending released this morning was another disappointment. Seasonally adjusted spending increased by just 0.1 percent, falling short of modest expectations of a 0.2 percent jump, following 0.2 percent declines in both December and January.

The opening paragraphs of coverage at Bloomberg News and the Associated Press contrasted sharply. Longtime readers can probably guess which wire tried to portray the news more positively. Predictably, both outlets broke out the bad weather excuse.

AP Fantasy: U.S. Economic Growth Has Been 'Really Durable'
By Tom Blumer | March 27, 2015 | 11:27 PM EDT

The latest wet kiss from the business press thrown the Obama administration's way came from Martin Crutsinger at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, late this afternoon.

Crutsinger, continuing to richly earn the "Worst Economics Writer" tag he received from National Review's Kevin Williamson two years ago, absurdly characterized the mediocre, pathetic economic peformance of the past 5-1/2 years — the worst post-World War II "recovery" on record, by miles — as "sluggish," but "one of the most durable." As traditionally and objectively measured, that statement is absolutely false, and he should know it.