WSJ: Media Bears - Why 1/3 of Americans think we're in recession when the economy is booming.

Wall Street Journal ^ | August 19, 2005 | Editorial

[OESY]

The paradox of the year is why so many Americans tell pollsters they feel bad about an economy that's been so good, with solid job growth and corporate profits, rising wages and home prices, and a huge decline in the budget deficit. Perhaps one reason is because the media keep saying the economy stinks.

That's the conclusion of... the Media Research Center, which finds that so far this year 62% of the news stories on the Big Three TV networks have portrayed the U.S. economy in negative fashion. The "negative full length TV news stories on the economy outnumbered positive stories by an overwhelming ratio of 4 to 1," the MRC reports.

...[A] CBS Evening News story on July 22 said that the economy is "very tenuous. It could fall apart at any moment. One piece of bad news, one additional terrorist attack, one negative corporate earnings, and it goes right down again." Contrast that funeral dirge with what Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress that same day: "The outlook is one of sustained economic growth."...

Media coverage of President Bush's tax cuts has been particularly slanted. During the 2003 tax-cut debate, three of every four major TV network news stories were negative. The favorite criticisms were liberal echoes that it would bust the budget and favor the rich. Earlier this year, a news story on National Public Radio announced that "as everyone knows, the primary cause of the budget deficit was the Bush tax cuts." No word yet on whom NPR is crediting with this year's revenue surge of $262 billion. Robert Rubin?

Given all of this doom-and-gloom reporting, maybe the surprise is that Americans are nonetheless behaving with their typical optimism, buying goods and services, bidding up the stock market, and creating new businesses....

[atlanta67]

lots of leftist propaganda there (the stock market rising in 1924 had no relation to the real economy).


Also illegal immigration will cause neither a recession nor a depression

[atlanta67]

go check out BLS.gov

[atlanta67]

sorry but wages are rising faster than inflation

[Nowhere Man]

You might consider that Bush has adopted the FDR receipe of priming the economy with deficit government dollars. FDR filled the job needs that private industry did not provide. FDR was doing OK until the Commies took him over.

I see it the same way, I tend to be more sympathetic to FDR than most Freepers would be. I'll explain as I go on below

Some history. "The Great Depression brought about severe economic hardships in America and around the world. People were opportunistic, wanting any type of advantage that could be given to them. One such group of people were the World War I veterans and their families; who wanted a bonus for their services in the Great War now, instead of in 1945. During this turbulent time, the United States government was very concerned with political uprisings that tried to overthrow the government. The government's great concern about riots and political uprisings during the Great Depression led to hasty actions to quell the Bonus March demonstrations, created animosity towards President Hoover, and eventually forced him out of office."

That's it in an nutshell. I think FDR did a lot of good, some of what he did, perhaps not, but he had a lot of problems tossed into his lap and they had to be dealt with, they needed answers. In times of crisis, you have to show inititative and strength be trying to do something. Sometimes you do the right thing, sometimes you do the wrong thing but the important thing to show is leadership and the ability to come up with plans, ideas and get them rolling. If you sit by and do nothing, that shows weakness and the inability to make decisions. I know had Hoover managed to win, he most likely would have had to implement his own version of the New Deal, sure it might have been somewhat different from FDR's ideas, but he would have had to act and be the leader to do something.

We had a very good chance of degrading into a fascist or communist dictatorship at that time. Between those two and what FDR did, I would choose FDR as the lesser of the evils and/or the best of the three choices we had.

Actually it was a war that ended the Great Depression.

I think eventually we would have crawled out of the Depression with FDr's ideas although I do agree with you that it was World War II that truly ended it along with everyone getting blown up during the war except us. Had the damage to the rest of the world were less or non-existant, the 1945 to 1975 prosperity might not have happened.

[atlanta67]

""Aside from World War II, has there ever been a single year in the last seven decades in which factory employment has actually increased?""


2004

[atlanta67]

""And the price of gas was?? (in 1990)""

from Aug-Dec it was about $1.50. Prior to Aug it was about $1.10

[atlanta67]

""Were you paying attention in 1992--to PJB's convention speech? Wherein he predicted that illegal immigration, spurred by NAFTA, would be a crisis?""


he never predicted that

[atlanta67]

""Two words: Gas, Homes...""

so which is it, are the majority hurt or helpe by rising real estate values..you seem to imply they are hurt

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

Yes, due to compounding, but I wanted to keep it simple for the masses. That is why I said "approx.". I wanted them to understand that annualized over three years was roughly triple the annulaized rate (even more due to compounding).

[atlanta67]

youre wrong..in 2004 manufacturing employment did increase for the first annual increase since 1998

[skeeter]

I'm game. Can you provide a link?

[atlanta67]

that anecdote is mostly garbage

[atlanta67]

just go snoop around www.BLS.gov, all sorts of excellent statistics over there

[Nowhere Man]

Decline in buying power? I could nor disagree more. I just bought furniture for my new home and paid a fraction for this furniture then I paid for similar stuff 8 years ago. Much of it made in China but as someone who has at least some knowledge of quality I feel I can say it is more then worth what I paid and probably would cost 2-3 times more if made here. I also was at a Staples store today and saw flt screen monitors, 17" for $279.00. Only 3 years ago they were selling for about $499. A 3.1 mega pixel digital camera I paid $265.00 for a year and a half ago can be replaced with a 5 mega pixel multi mode digital camera for the same price. The 3.1 mega pixel cameras are now selling for $149. A 32 inch TV that cost almost $900.00 in the early 1990's can be bought for a bit over $300.00 today. Cell phone, computers, printers, you name it all have come down in price markedly as have clothing. Gasoline has gone up as have heating costs and any fuel oil related products but they have been offset by declines in the areas I mentioned. Except for housing and health care, products and services that have increased in price have generally done so within the bounds of inflation.

One question I would like to aqsk is how long does today's stuff last compared to years ago? Sure a 25 inch TV costs less tan one did in 1982 or 1972 but how long do they lst. I'm watching a 1982 Zenith TV now, the same set now as when we bought it for $650 in 1983. It's been on everyday from February 1983 to now. I have a 1970 color Zenith 23 incher (the biggest TV back then) that might not take a lot to get back into service and I'm sure it would last a while too. My 1966 Sony B&W set still works. I know a guy who still watches a 1955 RCA color TV to this day and drives a 1964 Rambler he bought new. I know the examples are extreme, but I'd like to know the value you would get for your buck back in 1970 as what you would get now.

We are so wasteful as a society, one of my fellow radio/TV enthusiasts went our scrounging for old TV's by the curb on garbage day. As he tooled around in his 1970 Dodge Polara stationwagon, he spotted a 1989 RCA Colortrak to take home to fix. Well, he was curious so he plugged it in and turned it on, it worked perfectly even though it was being tossed out as garbage. This is one of the times I actually do agree with the "greenies" on where in this respect, we are too wasteful when it comes to discarding old but still useable stuff for the latest thing.

[superiorslots]

Quote: And you're nothing but a brain dead "populist" jealous of other's success. ;-)


Actually I have a very succesful insurance agency and making the most money I have ever made in my life. My wife is a veterinarian with her own practice and we have no kids so guess what.. We have little or no debt and lots of money to spend on toys.

That being said I am from an area that has lost it's manufacturing base over the last 10 years and can see the decline and lowering of the way of life in my area due to lower paying service jobs. I just had my 25th HS reunion 2 weeks ago and one of the topics frequently heard from returning classmates from other areas was how "rundown" the area looks. I just read where the unemployemnt rate in mI is now 7% and rising.

I admit the country is doing pretty good right now in some areas. However we are riding on a waive of prosperity due to "excess" consumerism that has been propping up the economy artificially. Wait until all the equity loans and CC 's are tapped out. Of course it may be a good thing ..we will no longer have to put up with all those ditech and e-loan commercials on TV.

Yep I guess I am an old fashioned fart-you know the type- put's our nation first and a concern over the well being of my fellow American workers and their way of life.
I guess my way of thinking and old fashioned patriotic fervor has been relugated to the landfill of 21st century globalism.

[Clemenza]

BTW: Didn't mean to call you brain dead, but I am young, callow, and got in an argument with my boss shortly before I wrote that note.

[A. Pole]

AVERAGED ANNUALIZED Small Value Index + 22.01% Small Cap Index + 21.18 Mid Value Index + 20.71% [...]

the FACTS show that the broad market has had an OUTSTANDING return over the last three years.

What does it mean when returns are much higher than the growth of economy? Who pays for it? Who gains?

[A. Pole]

But he doesn't work in a factory - so he must be a complete failure.

Wait when his radiology job is outsourced (it will happen within couple of years or sooner) and all his work and sacrifices are set at naught. Just be careful with preaching the Free Market Unholy Gospel to him at that time or you might became unholy martyr.

[ninenot]

Wrong:

"The purchasing power of weekly wages fell -0.2% in July, -0.5% down yr/yr and down -0.9% from July 2002. Real wages for service providing workers are -0.7% below July 2002 levels and manufacturing workers' wages are -0.9% lower than in July 1999. These wage data cover 81% of the private sector workforce."

MBG Information Services http://www.mbginfosvcs.com/, left-hand column, short scroll...

[ninenot]

Evidently you just make up whateveer numbers you want.

Better look at the historical BLS page.

Wrong again. That's two in two posts.