Economy

Perhaps you read this week that in April, the US Treasury reported all-time-record tax collections of $383.6 billion. If you did, you didn't read it in the dead-trees version of the New York Times. The Old Grey Lady did not deem Thursday afternoon's news "fit to print" on Friday (requires free registration), even choosing not to carry the related Associated Press report that is the main topic of…

With gasoline prices going up, Diane Sawyer worries they will continue to rise. With stock prices going up, the same Sawyer worries they will experience a crash of historic proportions.Sawyer's guest on Good Morning America today at 7:15 AM EDT was Mellody Hobson, a GMA financial contributor. Here's how Sawyer kicked things off.GMA CO-HOST DIANE SAWYER: Will runaway gas prices keep soaring,…

Global warming derangement syndrome has taken a disturbing turn for the worse, as The Sunday Times published an article May 6 stating that parents should only have two children in order to avert climate change. I kid you not.The piece, despicably titled “Having Large Families ‘is an Eco-crime,'” unbelievably began:HAVING large families should be frowned upon as an environmental misdemeanour in…

On Friday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) spilled the beancounters' beans (PDF report is available at the link) in advance of this next Thursday's release of the Monthly Treasury Statement. The coverage of CBO's report has been very light. Excuse me if I question CBO's timing. But first, the news -- The report by Andrew Taylor of the Associated Press (HT Right Angle Blog) has all that's…

Did the Dow’s ‘Bull Run’ Milestone Get to Your Paper’s Front Page Today?Front page? Heck, the overwhelming odds are that it didn't get mentioned anywhere. It should have been. At CNNMoney.com, writers Alexandra Twin and Steve Hargreaves appear to be the only ones who even recognized the significance of yesterday's positive market close (bolds are mine): Dow: Longest bull run in 80 years Major…

For several years as oil and gas prices have exploded, a frequent media commentary has been to blame the problem on President Bush. Either he didn’t do enough to stop a hurricane from hitting New Orleans, or it’s due to the war in Iraq, or he should talk to Iran, or it’s due to Cheney’s having run Halliburton – whatever the specious connection, the White House has been routinely at fault.Yet,…

As the stock market has continued to regularly make new highs in 2007, how many times have you heard or read a media report carping about how the rich are getting richer?Quite a bit, right?If you feel bombarded with such inanities, consider that a completely unaudited LexisNexis search of major American media outlets identified 234 reports which included phrases like “rich get richer,” “income…

Question: When is a New York Times "Manufacturing Recession" not a recession? Answer: When the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) keeps on issuing monthly reports, such as the one yesterday covering April, telling us that manufacturing is in expansion mode. On February 28 (second item at link), Times Business writer David Leonhardt wrote the following: For Manufacturing, a Recession Has…

In an unusual move last Friday, Ford decided that it couldn't wait for the month to end before it told us how bad it was going to be -- for the whole industry: Ford Motor Co. said on Friday that U.S. auto industry sales to date in April were "terrible" as consumer confidence was hit by a slow housing market and rising gas prices. ..... Pipas said industry volume appeared to be down 10 percent…