The Big Con

The Dummies' Guide to Stupid Leaders and Misleading Numbers

In case you didn't know, the loss of 20,000 American jobs in April is actually good news. You see, economists had predicted 73,000 jobs would be lost last month, so thank God we dodged that bullet, right?!more »

Blast from the Past: That Sinking Feeling

Longtime fans of this blog who recall my epic 67-part series on sinkholes and their relation to conservative failure may wonder why I haven't yet weighed in on the 600-foot gargantua that has been opening up in more »

First Draft of History: 98% of historians call Bush a "Failure"

U.S. News and World Report reports President Bush "often argues that history will vindicate him. more »

Conservative newpaper republishes mistake

James Lyons of the Washington Times makes the same mistake that was found in a previous commentary again.

Better Off Now than Seven Year Ago? No.

Here are the facts:

• Between March 2001 and March 2008 the nation lost almost 3.3 million manufacturing jobs, and only gained 5.3 million jobs overall—just slightly more than half the number of jobs needed to keep pace with the 9.8 million people added to the labor force during that period. That's why the unemployment rate is 15.7 percent higher in March 2008 than it was in March 2001. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• The share of the population with jobs declined from 64.3 percent of the population in March 2001 to 62.6 percent of the population in March 2008. It's the first time on record that a period of "economic recovery" has been marched by an actual decline in the employment rate. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Economic Policy Institute)
• Hourly wages rose 3.6 percent over the past year, the slowest growth rate in two years, and well behind recent inflationary readings, which have been around 4 percent. What's worse, employees on average have been keeping their workers on the job for fewer hours in the past year, so weekly earnings are up only 3.3 percent over the past year. (Economic Policy Institute).
• Since the late 1990's, average incomes fell by 2.5 percent for those in the bottom fifth of the income scale and rose by just 1.3 percent for those in the middle fifth. Meanwhile, incomes climbed 9 percent for those in the top fifth, not counting income from capital gains. (Economic Policy Institute)
• At the same time, the consumer price index from March 2001 to March 2008 has increased 17.5 percent. (Inflation Data.com)
• People in the top 1 percent of the income bracket captured about half of the overall economic growth between 1993 and 2006. (Emmanuel Saez, University of California, Berkeley)

more »

'Exploding' Domestic Spending Is a Myth

"Some people mistakenly believe that funding for domestic discretionary programs has exploded since 2001," says a February 2008 report by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. The reality is that funding for domestic discretionary programs outside homeland security is lower as a share of the economy in 2008 than it was in 2001. And, between 2002 and 2008, the overall funding level for domestic discretionary programs outside homeland security declined 2.6 percent in real per capita terms. In other words, spending on dozens of important and widely supported programs has not kept pace with inflation the past few years.

The real threat to our fiscal health is continued government disinvestment in vital education, health, safety net and infrastructure programs, as well as the continuation of the disastrous war in Iraq.more »