Economy

We have always been at war with Eastasia. ---Ministry of Truth, 1984. Falling GDP is good. It has always been good. And now that GDP has fallen in the first quarter and economic prospects don't look good for the near future, Politico's contributing editor, Zachary Karabell has discovered that falling GDP is good. In fact the title of this directive issued from the Politico Ministry of Truth flat…

Though such instances are quite rare, especially from conservative and Republican office-holding politicians and bureaucrats, we've been told time and again by the left that it's people on the right who demonize and dehumanize their opponents. Well, I don't recall George W. Bush, anyone in his administration, or any Republican congressman or senator serving at the time of his tax cuts or during…

Yesterday, the government revised the economy's first-quarter contraction from the annualized 0.7 percent it reported in May to 0.2 percent. In covering that news, the Associated Press's Christopher Rugaber spent most of his report speculating about the second quarter's impending "rebound" as if its existence is absolutely certain, citing only the items which would cause readers to believe that'…

One of the latest in a seemingly endless stream of missives from the perpetually aggrieved comes from Ruth Graham at the Politico, which seems to have become an especially fertile repository for such ridiculous items. Mr. Graham is completely unimpressed that Obama administration Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has announced that the image of a famous woman to be named later will soon grace the $10…

Vox's David Roberts, who describes himself at his "drvox" Twitter page as a "Seattleite transplanted from Tennessee," clearly does not have a lot of love for his region of origin. Tuesday afternoon, in the wake of Dylann Roof's racially motivated massacre in Charleston, South Carolina, Roberts tweeted his belief that "The American South has always been the most barbaric, backward region in any…

Michael O’Donnell is eager to push back against the belief that Reagan ranks with Franklin Roosevelt as a great 20th-century president. In his review of H.W. Brands’ Reagan: The Life in the Washington Monthly’s June/July/August issue, O’Donnell wrote that “Roosevelt saved the nation from an existential threat (the Great Depression), while Reagan merely steered it out of a funk (the 1970s).…

Pundits occasionally opine that someone or other is the face of a given political party. Paul Waldman of The Week implies that Donald Trump would be a fitting choice as the Republican party’s face, presumably drawn by a cartoonist, since Trump is “a walking caricature…created from everything Republicans believe” about matters such as money and patriotism. “Trump is the essence of contemporary…

It seems as if the establishment press has ruined virtually everything connected with journalism. The whole idea of "fact-checking" is certainly no exception. The thoroughly misnamed Politifact pioneered this particular form of disinformation. The Associated Press, apparently determined to give that web site a run for its money, devoted a writeup to "fact-checking" (i.e., virtually ridiculing) a…

As GOP presidential candidate and former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina appeared as a guest on Wednesday's New Day, CNN co-host Chris Cuomo pressed Fiorina over her wealth and her criticisms of President Obama's handling of the ISIS threat. After bringing up the former CEO's $59 million net worth, Cuomo made it sound as if he were speaking for 98 percent of Americans as he suggested that they…

On Tuesday and Wednesday, CNN's New Day aired pre-recorded segments in which co-anchor Chris Cuomo spoke with six New Hampshire voters about the presidential race. Although the group was supposedly balanced by including two Republicans, two Democrats, and two independents, four of the six participants -- including one of the Republicans -- seemed more aligned with Democrats in their interests…

In February of last year, Gap Inc., which operates Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Athleta stores, announced that it would raise its minimum hourly rate of pay for all U.S. employees to $9 in June 2014 and $10 in June 2015. As a result, it won "praise from President Obama who is pushing to raise the nation's minimum wage by a similar amount." The company said that the move would affect 65,000…

Today's release from the Federal Reserve on industrial production (including mining and utilities) told us that it declined by a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent in May. It was the sixth consecutive month showing a decline or no gain, during which time output has fallen by 1.1 percent (not annualized). Bloomberg News, which reported that economists and analysts expected an increase of 0.2 percent…

As we’ve often discussed, the Tech Media is just as hopelessly Leftist and lost as the broader Jurassic Press.  They are both echo chambers - talking points and terrible ideas bounce with great rapidity around their tiny little worlds.  They are the Bubble Boys (and Girls) of news. When a Tech Media story crosses over to the broader Jurassic Press - their ridiculous Leftist repetitiveness is…

On Thursday, the Census Bureau's report on May retail sales said that seasonally adjusted sales came in 1.2 percent higher than April. The press almost universally cited that result as demonstrating that the economy's rough patch earlier this year is likely over. Yours truly and the contrarians at Zero Hedge both noted that the result is highly suspect, and doesn't adequately reflect the raw…