Friday, August 14, 2009

Economy: Mainstream Media Hypocrites Have No Shame

Yesterday's actual news on the econmy was affirmatively BAD. Yet, you would not know it from listening to the mainstream media dishonest hypocrites (which, of course, you should not do, except as fodder for a blog like this).


The first story I heard yesterday morning was that foreclosure notices on houses--despite all of those hyped "solutions" from the Federal Government given to you by Congress and President Obama--went UP in July. There were 7% MORE forclousre notices in July than in June, and 32% more than July of last year. Cant really get too much worse than that, can it?

Well, if this were the still the Bush Presidency, that is exactly what the mainstream media would have said--that the world is still ending We know that because they did say that throughout the Bush Presidency, with respect to much better economic news than this. Indeed last summmer the economic news was BETTER than this (32% less froeclousre notices, in addition to actual GROWTH in the economy). Yes, that was mainly due to the FederalGovernment throwing money at the economy last summer, which coluld not stop the ultimate collapse (helped by the Bernanke/Paulson panic). But how is that different from this summer, where the Federal Government is throwing more money (inefficitently) at the economy, with LESS results?


You think I am exaggerating about the hypocrites in the mainstream media and their agenda? Poor you (being mentally challenged and all). I am actually understating the hypocrisy of these hypocrites, and could not overstate it if I tried. For example, CBS Ratoio reported this first bad news story yesterday this way: "The economy is coming around, but too late for many people losing their homes." Say what? Foreclosures are still going up, but the economy is "coming around"? No objective person could believe that the news would be reported this way if Bush were still President. The mainstream media is now so dsihones that they don't even really try to hide it.


Want more? The second story yesterday was that retail sales were MUCH WORSE than expected in July, even with that "cah for clunkers" program. Retail sales were DOWN in July (after previous months this year when they had been UP). "Economists" had been predicting a RISE of .8%, but got a DROP of a tenth of a percent or tw (not much of a drop, but hardly an economy "coming around"!!!!). What was the CBS "News" reaction to this bit of bad news, along with the third bad news story that first time claims for unemployment went UP last week (more people losing their jobs)? Well, CBS (on its 3 minute summary of the "important" "news" of the day), had some "expert" "comment" (present the CBS view) that: "This is not really good news, but it does not change the 'trend", which is entirely positive".


Say what? What trend? Did I not just tell you that retail sales had gone UP in previous months this year--when they were not going down. No, we are not taling a "trend" from being down early in the year, and constantly rising--with this "bilip" down in July. We are taling good retail sales rebounds in months like January or February. In other words, there has been no consistent "trend" in retail sales at all. It is even worse on unemployment numbers. Those numbers have jumped all around, from week to week and month to month. But the mainstream media have proclaimed the good (only in a relative ense) numbers a "trend", and the bad numbers as irrelevant to the "trend" DISHONEST HYPOCRITES.


What about that "cahs for clunkers" program, which the same public at large who do not want an expensive government "overhaul" of health care did not really want? Well, the "experts" were saying (without realizing the logical conclusion from what they were saying) that the "cahs for clunkers" program had actually HURT the economy at large by diverting money away from other purchases. As much of the public recognized, but not Congress, why should taxpayers help pay for your car, but not for your televisioin, your clothes, etc.? And was this "predatory" action by Congress, as in the policies that led to the housing crisis, in inducing people to make large car purchases they could not really afford, even with the taxpayers footing part of the bill? Now lyou have to take this Wall Street (the Stupidest People on Earth, as indicated by the continued bubble in stock prices and commodity prices at the same time--meaning that the Stupicest People on Earth are "predicting" two totally contradictory things: BOTH runaway infaltion and a strong economy) view of the "cash for clunkers" program with grains of salt.


However, one truth is certain. Federal Government, central planning programs--whehter health care or "cahs for clunkers" or whatever--DISTORT the economy. They shift resources in ways that cannot even be foreseen in advance with maximum possible cost, beyond any human ability to discern whether the consequences will be good or bad (beyond the fact that experience tells us the consequences are bound to be mostly bad, and theory tells us that directing allocation of resources by central planning cannot possibly be as efficient as market allocation of resources).


Has this blog done it better (telling you significance of economic "news")? Darn right. I have told you that what has really happened is that the econmy has stopped getting significantly worse, at least in part because of the money the Federal Government is pushing into the economy, but that the economy is NOT "recovering" significantly. What we are doing is bumping along the bottom.


The jury is still out on whether we are capable of a significant recovery from here. That is the problem with printing money (seee next entry), and the expolsion in Federal spending. That may prop up the economy in the short run, as it did last summer, but at the COST of making a long run recovery impossible (unless you are talking about the very long run, after the final collapse).


As readers of this blog know, I am pessimistic about our ability to survive this out of control Federal spending without MAJOR pain. But that opinion (albeit an accurate one) has not affected by strictly factual analysis of where we are. "Where we are" is that the economy has stoppped its free fall (as it would have, at some point, if the government had done nothing), but that the mainstream media agenda idea that we are "out of the woods" is FALSE. And yet we are propsing, in this fragile situation, to start a massive, expensive Federal "overhaul" of our health care system? Are we INSANE? Well, a compelling case can be made that Obama and leftist Democrats are insane, in terms of being totally divorced from reality.


To call the mainstream media "insane" is to elevate them. Many people with mental disease are smart (outside of their sometimes bizarre fantasies--although most may not be as bizarrre as Dan's ability to fantasize about having sex with a black widow spider like Campbell Brown--see comment a number of entries ago) and honest. The people of the mainstream media are neither smart nor honest. And they are insane besides. Nice people. Ignore them.

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