AP Pending Home Sales Report Avoids Naming the Percentage Increase
I received this CNN e-mail this morning: Pending home sales in April rose 6.3%, from March, but fell 13.1% from last year, according to a Realtor trade group. Not bad. It might even be fair to say (emphasis: might) that the real estate market is on the long road back to something resembling normalcy. The Associated Press's J.W. Elphinstone sanitized this pretty decent news, and I'll show you…
Fla. Paper: Americans Want Out of USA, But NO Proof Offered
This is the sort of report that immediately gets my BS detector up. A recent Palm Beach [Fla.] Post story is trying to claim that Americans are running to Europe to claim dual citizenship because the U.S. is so horrible for everyone here. Yet, even as the story is making the claim that more Americans are fleeing this country for Europe, it offers no statistics to prove it. And the Post even…
Stunning Ignorance About 'Pink Slips' (Yet Again) from AP
The Associated Press's Jeannine Aversa started off her Friday evening report on the day's economic news showing, as she and her AP colleagues have for several months, that they either don't understand very basic concepts relating to the information they're attempting to digest and convey or are deliberately reporting it inaccurately: Pink slips piled up and jobs disappeared into thin air in May…
What If ADP's Employment Report is Right (and Uncle Sam's Isn't
Specifically, what if it is better at picking up small-business job creation than the government's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)? The media isn't asking this question, even though the two reports have diverged by over 400,000 jobs in the past four months (see latest reports here, here, and here on ADP's May estimate that 40,000 jobs were added, vs. expectations that it would come in at 30,000…
The Economy: 'Expectations' Are Taking Quite a Beating This Week
Don't miss the significant reporting errors noted at the end of this post. _______________________________________________ If this were a boxing match, with "The Economy" in one corner, and "Expectations" in the other, we'd be seeing a third-round knockout with "Expectations" taken away in an ambulance. But if you think the news this week has changed the tone of the Associated Press's business…
CBS Blames Gas Prices In GM Closures, Disregards Expensive Union Labor
High gas prices strike again, says the "CBS Evening News." The June 3 "Evening News" blamed surging gas prices and General Motors reluctance to produce "more fuel-efficient vehicles" for closure of several plants, including one in Janesville, Wisc. "It's not just here and it's not just GM. Since 2005, the big three - GM, Ford and Chrysler - have had 70 plants and supplier shutdowns with a…
The Kelo-New London Calamity Continues ('Barren Land
It has been nearly three years since the Kelo v. New London ruling by the US Supreme Court, and just short of two years since the city of New London, CT settled with the final two Fort Trumbull holdouts, Susette Kelo and the Cristofaro family. The Supreme Court's majority, in their June 2005 Kelo ruling, declared that "public use" as stated in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution really means…
Time Notes Argentine Prez's Falling Poll #s, Fails to Note She's Lefti
"A Meltdown for Argentina's Hillary" blares the teaser headline in the Top Stories slideshow on Time.com's front page."The fortunes of Argentina's new leader are falling even faster than those of the former First Lady she's been compared to," continues the caption on the front page. The June 2 article in question by Uki Goni delves into how President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has seen her…
Former Wash. Post Reporter: Blame Everyone Except Borrowers for Mortga
How does a former reporter for The Washington Post score a 2,200-word column on the mortgage mess in her former publication? Never mention personal responsibility. Kathleen Day took blame to a new level June 1 when she failed to mention personal responsibility even one time in her lengthy column. Day, now a spokeswoman for the left-wing Center for Responsible Lending, was a financial reporter…
Not So Subliminal Pro-Obama Message in Tough Economy Story on 'Today
In a hard economic times story by NBC's Kevin Tibbles on Monday's "Today" show there was a not-so-subliminal pro-Obama message on display as several times pro-Obama signs found their way into the background. Reporting on the increased traffic to pawn shops by the desperate to make ends meet in the "rocky economy," Tibbles, didn't mention Obama by name but the Illinois senator's name or image…
CNN's Lou Dobbs: 'When Does George Bush Leave Office
Yesterday's edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight included a report from Kitty Pilgrim on product recalls from China and the administration's efforts to reduce importation of unsafe products. "Bush administration officials are going through the charade of tougher enforcement with few results," according to correspondent Pilgrim. Using the term "charade" prepared viewers for where this segment was…
First Quarter GDP Growth Up Higher Than Originally Thought
May 27: Paul R. La Monica for CNN Money reporting on Warren Buffett's belief that "we are already in a recession." Notice the lede: NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It's getting harder and harder to deny that the economy is in recession.May 29: The federal government releases an upward revision of the first quarter GDP growth. The ever-pessimistic AP reporter Martin Crutsinger grudgingly admitted that…
