Paul Wiseman

AP: Economists, Analysts, and Experts Are 'Baffled,' 'Confounded' By Job Market That Is 'Defying History'
By Tom Blumer | July 9, 2011 | 11:10 AM EDT

If we are believe two late Friday afternoon dispatches from the Associated Press following the government's awful Employment Situation report earlier in the day, you would think that even a cadre of cops with the talent of Sherlock Holmes couldn't solve the mystery of the underperforming job market.

Economics Writers Christopher Rugaber and Paul Wiseman went with themes of "baffled economists" and "defying history," respectively.

First, here are a few paragraphs from Rugaber's risible report (bolds are mine):

AP Coverage of Bernanke's 'I Have No Idea' Speech Similarly Clueless
By Tom Blumer | June 23, 2011 | 1:36 AM EDT

When the Associated Press's Paul Wiseman and Martin Crutsinger team up for a report on the economy, there's no limit to the comic potential.

Today, in covering what the folks at Zero Hedge described as "Ben Bernanke's 'I Have No Idea Why The Economy Will Get Better But It Will' Speech" (transcript is at link), the AP pair may have set a new world record for most unused words one would expect to be employed in a report on the condition of the economy.

Readers will not find the following words, all of which bear at least somewhat on why the economy is currently failing to live up to expectations and to meaningfully rebound nearly two years after the official end of the recession, in the wire service's report:

AP's Wiseman Rolls Out a New But Tiresome Description of the Economy
By Tom Blumer | June 1, 2011 | 8:54 PM EDT

Associated Press Economics Writer Paul Wiseman apparently exhausted his supply of adjectives to describe the current state of the U.S. economy, and came up with a new one.

Today's news wasn't good. The Institute for Supply Management's Manufacturing Index plunged from 60.4% to 53.5%. While still indicating expansion (any value above 50% means that), it's the biggest one-month drop since January 1984, a factoid impressively relayed by the AP's David Wagner earlier today. ADP's private-sector payroll report showed only 38,000 jobs added in May, the lowest number since September. May car sales slumped.

So how did Paul Wiseman describe the economy? See after the jump (bolds are mine):

AP's Misnamed Wiseman Joins the 'BLS Must Be Wrong' Brigade, Questioning Dismal Employment Report's Validity
By Tom Blumer | December 5, 2010 | 9:24 PM EST

At the Associated Press late Sunday afternoon, reporter Paul Wiseman, who may have the most inappropriate last name in the history of business journalism, engaged in a brazen "It's really not that bad" excuse-making exercise on behalf of the economy Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Ben Bernanke have created. In the process, he joined a Reuters reporter in questioning the validity of the information Friday's Employment Situation Report.

Rush Rips AP's Misnamed Wiseman As 'Ignoramus' Over Perils of Letting Unemployment Benefits Expire
By Tom Blumer | November 30, 2010 | 6:31 PM EST

In no uncertain terms, Rush Limbaugh (link will become unavailable in seven days) ripped into an Associated Press report today on the alleged perils of allowing unemployment benefits to expire for what the Labor Department says is nearly 2 million unemployed:

I have not had one class in economics since high school in the 1960s -- not one -- and I understand more about this through my own self-education than these wizards at the AP. And I'm still convinced they just repeated it. They just printed a fax from Pelosi's office or whatever. ... After 23 years and we still get trash like this in our major, #1 wire service. I guarantee you whoever wrote this story is an absolute, abject ignoramus. I don't know about you, folks, but I don't like being surrounded by stupidity.

The chief ignoramus in question whose name Rush didn't have is the misnamed AP Economics Writer Paul Wiseman, with the ignorant assistance of Christopher Rugaber. Behold their ignorance: