When the U.S. Congress decides to run roughshod over the wisdom of free markets, we get irrational results such as what we see today with Ethanol (WSJ).
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From the category archives:
Politics
It’s hopefully not a new idea to you that news organizations are prone to present just about any story as “THE MOST SHOCKING, BIGGEST, UNPRECEDENTED, MUST-SEE MUNDANE STORY WE’VE EVER REPORTED!!!!!” Why? They are deathly afraid you will change the channel when they cut to commercial, or walk past the newsstand without buying that paper, or allow your eyes to scan right past the link to their site and never consume the ads they are selling. Yes, IT’S A BUSINESS! They only report news because they so desperately need your eyeballs in order to make a profit selling advertising around their reporting.
This is why, over the last six months, you’ve seen so many headlines in this vein: “Most Americans Ever Unemployed.” What’s wrong with that headline? Just this: The fact is that as a percentage of the workforce, unemployment during the current recession is not as great as it has been even in the last 30-40 years, let alone during the Great Depression (not even close). But instead of stating that in the headline, it will say, “More Americans Out Of Work Than During Great Depression.” Guess what? There are many millions more people in the U.S. today than during the time of the Great Depression, so the fact that there are more Americans unemployed today than there were then is more of a curiosity than an indicator of the severity of the current economic downturn.
Headlines, though, are written to grab attention, not present the facts that are needed to properly place a story in historical context.
The media are not alone in this. Political candidates (or, I should say, candidates who are not incumbents) also work to give the impression that times are unprecedentedly hard during their campaign. While he was running for office, Pres. Obama was absolutely following this predictable playbook. As the media has the same motivation, they were happy to repeat the Obama mantra that this was the worst economy in 50 years. (I seem to recall that Bill Clinton’s campaign in 1992 had the exact same “worst economy in 50 years” mantra. The result of focus-group testing of the most effective time comparison, probably.) A candidate who can instill fear in voters and convince them that he or she is the panacea to the scenario which the voters should fear, has a good chance of winning those votes. Obama carried this tactic right into his term in the White House, using constantly-stoked fear of economic collapse as political cover to win passage of the enormous stimulus bill, full of unpopular initiatives which would be very unlikely to be voted into law were they debated on their own merits. This was one of the most cowardly legislative tactics I’ve ever seen.
Kirk Petersen cites data that supports this idea in his blog post today. Give it a read, and be cognizant of such tactics when you are consuming news reporting, whether it be on television, in print, or online.
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I’ve seen several mentions of the record deficits in Pres. Obama’s budget being understated. Yes, they’re the highest ever, but they are very unlikely to remain at those levels – they’ll almost certainly go much higher. Here’s one example from Newsweek: Defense—a.k.a. national security—has long been government’s first job. In Obama’s budget, defense spending drops [...]
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The deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act, also known as Card Check, has been introduced into the U.S. Congress. The passage of this act was a campaign promise of Pres. Obama, and is a top priority of organized labor leaders. The act would radically change the current process for organizing elections in the workplace. Such elections, [...]
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Pat Buchanan is a figure with whom I do not always agree, but I always appreciate the perspective of history that he brings to his analysis of politics and world affairs. I wish I had his grasp on history. You need to read the entire column, but I’ll share two brief quotes here: History never [...]
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In a book published in 2000, which looks to now be out of print, David Horowitz defined The Art of Political War. His premise is that the Democrats are engaged in something different from what the Republicans believe they are engaged in. One believes they are fighting a war, and one believes they are debating [...]
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In the weeks just before the presidential election, and the months between the election and inauguration, I heard many speculate that Obama would probably govern from the center in order to be more able to draw Republican members of Congress across the aisle. If you’re still holding onto that idea, thinking that Pres. Obama would [...]
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The video below is from a 1979 episode of Phil Donahue’s program. Milton Friedman (1912-2006) was a Nobel Prize-winning economist. Donahue put him on the spot to defend capitalism and the greed that drives it. His response is as timely today as it was then. (h/t: Mark Smith)
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