Economy

Pundits and politicians are normally so slick that they can weasel their way out of even the most glaring of contradictions. "Depends on what the meaning of is, is," anyone?  So it's particularly delicious, to use Noel Sheppard's trademark phrase, to see a talking head left absolutely cornered, babbling without response, when caught in the hypocrisy of a double-standard. On today's Morning Joe…

The Census Bureau reported today that sales of new single-family homes in the U.S. reached an annualized level of 421,000 in August. That was up by almost 8 percent from July, but a whopping 15 percent below the 497,000 the bureau originally reported for June (two subsequent revisions have taken that number down to 454,000). Given the shock decline to below 400,000 in July, August's bounceback…

On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, CNN lambasted Sen. Ted Cruz who led a 21-hour Senate floor speech against Obamacare. During the speech by Cruz and other Republican senators, CNN hosts Piers Morgan and Chris Cuomo mocked Cruz as "deluded" and a "kid playing with matches." Chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash called it "by many people's account here a fool's errand." [Video…

So much for the recovery. Even liberals admit employment is “weak,” that household wealth hasn’t recovered and consumer experts say middle-class retailers are “struggling.” But two of the three broadcast news networks have been much more focused on “proof that the economy is getting stronger,” than on economic worries since the May jobs report was released June 6.

Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich typically spouted Democrat talking points Sunday concerning the battle over raising the debt ceiling and defunding ObamaCare. Fortunately for viewers of ABC's This Week, CNN's Newt Gingrich was there to smack down Reich saying, "This is historical baloney" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Throughout Friday morning's coverage of the House vote on the continuing resolution (CR), CNN repeatedly slapped Republicans for supposedly risking a government shutdown to defund Obamacare. A CNN chyron even stated that they were voting on a "shutdown," though that is inaccurate since the bill voted on would still fund the government, just not Obamacare. Below is the worst of CNN's contempt…

It "amazes" MSNBC's Ed Schultz "that people don't love Obama" and think he's doing a stellar job handling the economy. Reacting to a video clip of that absurd rant, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told the audience of Sean Hannity's September 19 program the reasons why. There's "1.9 million less jobs" now than when President Obama took office, not to mention "47,600,000 Americans on food…

 Chris Matthews on Wednesday continued his assault on conservatives who oppose the funding of ObamaCare in the coming fiscal showdown, sneering that the "looney tunes" Republicans want to "kill the recovery." The Hardball anchor, who recently lost his 5pm slot and now can only be seen at 7pm, also bizarrely linked this to the President of Starbucks asking gun owners not to open carry in stores…

At the Associated Press, aka the Admininstration's Press, reporter Jim Kuhnhenn predictably and dutifully reported that President Barack Obama "reiterated his vow not to negotiate with Republicans over raising the borrowing limit." As usual, the AP and Kuhnhenn didn't look back at how U.S. Senator Barack Obama's debt-ceiling posture in 2006 sharply differed. Today, Mark Knoller at CBS New,…

PBS anchor Judy Woodruff asked a question on Monday’s NewsHour that perfectly captured the modern liberal mentality about government spending and debt. During a taped interview with former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Woodruff asked: [Video below. MP3 audio here.]

On CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday, Sun Microsystems founder and Harvard-trained economist Scott Mc Nealy asserted the Federal Reserve has become a "marketing department" for the government and "shouldn't be in any business at all. They shouldn’t be in the business of taxing people by devaluing the dollar, and they shouldn’t be in the business of setting expectations." He said the Fed should…

A 6 p.m. Google News search on "Occupy Movement" (not in quotes, sorted by date) returned 69 items dated September 16 and 17. The same search adding the word "capitalism" returned only two items. This is odd, because, as one of the two items returned noted, "capitalism" — as in ending it — is the core platform of the few who remain involved with the two year-old movement.

[UPDATED BELOW] Three times on Tuesday morning, CNN mentioned sequester cuts as a possible culprit behind the security breach at the Navy Yard that led to Monday's shooting there. A CNN headline actually read "Did Government Cuts Put Lives at Risk?" This came after a former Navy commander warned on CNN that blaming the sequester was "very premature." And just before noon, correspondent Dana…

Within hours of the shootings at the Washington, D.C., Navy Yard Monday, Barack Obama took to the airwaves to amongst other things attack Republicans. On Fox News’s Special Report, Brit Hume said, “I think that this president tends to engage in partisan attacks from the platform at the White House more than any president I can remember.”