Dow 14,000 - Liberal Media Reports Doom and Gloom

[red states rule]

It took the Dow three months to go from 13.000 to 14,000

Yet, the liberal media was all doom and gloom last night as they "reported" the story



Dow at 14,000; ABC: 'Good Deal of Worrisome Economic News These Days'
By Brent Baker | July 19, 2007 - 20:58 ET
Repeating the downbeat spin employed when the Dow Jones Industrials passed 13,000 in late April and ABC's reporter warned “we're actually overdue for a correction,” less than three months later when the Dow closed over 14,000, ABC's World News put the news into a “yes, but” framework. Fill-anchor Elizabeth Vargas on Thursday night led with the record high close, but fretted that “there's a good deal of worrisome economic news these days -- from sky-high gas prices to America's gaping trade deficit” and “yet,” she marveled, “the market keeps marching on.” Reporter John Berman began by emphasizing that though “the Dow went from 13 to 14,000 in just 3 months,” this occurred “despite those serious jitters about the U.S. economy: $3 gas, a major housing slump -- a drag on the U.S. economy.” Crediting the rise to overseas earnings, Berman pointed out that “while the economy in the U.S. is struggling along in a growth rate of less than one percent, it's racing ahead at nearly 11 percent in China with strong numbers in India, Russia and Brazil as well.” Vargas followed up on a gloomy note, raising “disappointing earnings reports from Google,” prompting Berman to predict: “It may mean that the mood tomorrow won't be quite so rosy.”

Thursday's CBS Evening News wasn't as negative as it was back in April, but in his generally upbeat piece Anthony Mason contrasted the American economy with the international scene: “The U.S. economy doesn't look nearly as strong. Retailers just had their worst month in nearly two years. Gas prices are rising. And house prices are falling.”

The Wednesday, April 25 NewsBusters item, “Dow Soars to Record 13,000 Point Level, But...CBS and ABC Stress the Negative,” recounted CBS's take that night:


CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric fretted that "even as investors are making money in the market, Anthony Mason reports there are concerns tonight about the rest of the U.S. economy." Mason talked with a celebrating stock trader before turning downbeat: "But Wall Street and Main Street appear to be headed in different directions. While the stock market's been racing ahead, the economy has been slowing down. Housing is mired in a slump." Liz Ann Sonders of Charles Schwab confirmed bad news for the overall economy, citing how "we have seen economic growth get cut in about half in the last year, so clearly the economy is not as strong as it was a year ago." Mason ominously warned: "Rising gas prices, up 70 cents already this year, could slow the economy even more."

The NB posting also relayed ABC's negative spin:


ABC anchor Charles Gibson teased World News: "Tonight, the Dow moves into uncharted territory, zooming past 13,000 for the first time. But is the economy as hot as the market?" Gibson set up his lead story by contrasting how "the rise in recent months has been steep, despite less-than-inspiring news on the economy overall." Betsy Stark featured pleased investors before cautioning how "there were fresh signs today of trouble in the housing market" and "oil prices shot up another dollar today, which will only add to consumers' woes at the pump." Gibson stayed on the negative, proposing to Stark: "We've had four years of a straight bull market. Doesn't just the timing of this suggest that there might be a correction?" Stark agreed: "By historical standards, Charlie, we're actually overdue for a correction."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/dow-14000-abc-theres-good-deal-worrisome-economic-news-these-days.html

 

[red states rule]

We have now removed ALL doubts as to the affects of tax cuts. They have spurred one of the greatest economic runs in history!

 

[Delbert]

RSR,....you libs crack me up

 

[red states rule]

RSR,....you libs crack me up

Tax cuts work everytime - and it bugs the hell of liberals

 

[JeffWartman]

The Dow is down, when measured with real value.

 

[JeffWartman]

Tax cuts work everytime - and it bugs the hell of liberals

Every single person who is educated in Economics disagrees with you.

 

[ReillyT]

I really love RSR and his posts. It is so refreshing to find someone who is so sure in their beliefs that they absolutely refuse to be blinded by the cruel light of reason.

 

[Bern80]

The DOW and the economy as a whole are not all that correlary. The DOW is one indicator of how the economy is going and essentially reflects peoples confidence in it. And despite the perported bad news investors are still confident which is why stock prices are be driven up.

I can't say i now a ton about the houseing market as an economic indicator. What i do know is that to say "a major houseing slump" is a bit disingenuous. What is more accurate is that there is a slump for sellers because they're asking more then what their properties are worth and thus can't sell them. That was my experience into my brief fore into home shopping. Very soon, if not already, the houseing market is going to be a buyers market. At some point the houseing market is always going well for someone.

The question as far as the stories were concerned is why the media feels an overwhelming need to rain on the parade. I am one of those believers in the liberal bias of our media and that they really do need to find some negative in every positive thing that happens during this administration.

 

[BaronVonBigmeat]

Eh, going from 13k to 14k in three months is...okay, I guess. But we really could be doing better. Take Zimbabwe, for instance:



Hopefully the administration is taking notes from Zimbabwe's playbook, so we'll see spectacular gains like this in the future.

 

[red states rule]

Every single person who is educated in Economics disagrees with you.

To bad history goes against them - and you

 

[red states rule]

I really love RSR and his posts. It is so refreshing to find someone who is so sure in their beliefs that they absolutely refuse to be blinded by the cruel light of reason.

It is history and what is happening rright now

Libs think Amercia can be taxed into prosperity

 

[red states rule]

Foreign Investors More Confident in U.S. Economy Than Media Are
By Noel Sheppard | July 21, 2007 - 12:59 ET
As NewsBusters has been reporting this week (see this and this), as the stock market hit new all-time highs, the media have been dour Nervous Nellies carping and whining about gas prices, the low value of the dollar, the housing slump, and the rising trade deficit.

Yet, there are a variety of issues that press outlets have conveniently ignored during this record bull run that not only explain rising stock prices, but also give a more accurate view of what is going on in the global economy.

For instance, Bloomberg was one of the only major media outlets Tuesday which reported record purchases of U.S. securities by foreigners in May (emphasis added):

International buying of U.S. financial assets unexpectedly climbed to a record in May as investors snapped up American stocks and corporate bonds.

Total holdings of equities, notes and bonds climbed a net $126.1 billion, from $80.3 billion the previous month, the Treasury said today in Washington. Economists predicted foreign investment would slow to a net $73 billion, based on the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey.

[...]

``The breadth and depth of U.S. markets help it attract capital,'' particularly from emerging markets and oil exporters flush with cash from trade surpluses, said Joe Quinlan, chief market strategist at Bank of America Corp.'s investment strategy group in New York. Foreign investors ``still have confidence'' in the U.S. economy, he said.

Yep. Foreign investors have more confidence in the U.S. economy than American media. Imagine that.

Didn't hear about this report? Well, how could you? Virtually no one outside of the financial press thought it was newsworthy; reporting such bullishness by foreigners would undermine the media meme about how America is hated all across the globe as a result of the war in Iraq.

So would another inconvenient truth media are hiding from the citizenry: the low dollar has created a boom in foreign travel to this country setting tourism records in cities around the nation.

As reported by the New York Post:

A depressed dollar is turning Fifth Avenue into a virtual flea market for global travelers as strong currencies like the British pound and the euro create a glut of great deals on fashions, electronics and hot status brands.

New York City is celebrating a record year from foreign tourists hitting town for weak dollar bargains - reaping savings of about one-third of what they'd spend back home.

[...]

And it's not only New York City that stands to benefit. European tour operators are said to be packaging shopping tours for U.S. cities - including weekend sprees in such hard-core retail destinations as the Mall of America in Minnesota, the world's largest shopping center - where three nonstop flights arrive daily from Europe.

It is expected that more foreigners will visit America in 2007 than in any year in history. Adding this to record foreign investment in our securities, it certainly appears that this America-hating the media focus so much attention on is largely present only in newsrooms.

Unfortunately, as press outlets mischaracterize the evils of a falling dollar, they conveniently ignore the positives. For instance, in a global economy, a weak dollar is beneficial, as it makes your product cheaper around the world.

This is why China keeps its yuan pegged to our dollar in a fashion that makes the yuan inexpensive compared to all other countries. This makes its products cheap compared to those made elsewhere.

Europeans might be egotistically pleased with the strength of the euro, and American media members green with envy. However, European companies are very unhappy with this exchange rate, and wish the European Central Bank would lower interest rates in order to weaken the euro and make European products more affordable abroad.

Unfortunately, the ECB president, Jean-Claude Trichet, has woefully mismanaged EU monetary policy to such an extent that most European nations aren't experiencing close to the economic expansion America is. Sadly, our European-loving media aren't interested in sharing such facts with the citizenry.

Nor are they willing to give the Bush administration or our Federal Reserve any credit for America's low dollar policy. After all, it's not an accident the dollar is so cheap compared to most other currencies. It is, in fact, an intended consequence of both fiscal and monetary policies to help America's companies sell their goods and services in a highly competitive overseas market.

If the media were at all honest, they would look at exploding stock prices, rising corporate earnings, expanding employment and wages, and surprisingly strong tax receipts as evidence that U.S. economic policy is working. Alas, such appears impossible when a Republican is in the White House.

Nor are they willing to honestly represent the true meaning of trade deficits as they present this largely misunderstood economic statistic in a fashion exclusively designed to generate unwarranted pessimism.

For instance, America is the largest economy in the world, and our entire system is based around consumption. Loads of it. Including piles and piles of debt.

As such, we are the world's consumer, a fact that media should revel in rather than rue. After all, since the press live exclusively off of advertising dollars, if consumers stopped consuming, media outlets not supported by government funds would all go the way of the dodo.

Not recognizing their similar dependence on consumers to that of foreign nations, press outlets speciously point at the trade deficit as some sign of American economic weakness. In fact, nothing can be further from the truth.

As the following chart from the Census Bureau illustrates, America has had an uninterrupted trade deficit now since 1976. Coming so soon after the first energy crisis in late 1973, it is likely that much of the change from trade surplus to deficit at that time stemmed from rising oil prices. And, given what's happened to oil and gas prices the past five years, it is conceivable that a good percentage of the trade deficit expansion of late is indeed oil-related, a concept that seems lost on bearish media members.

Regardless, one of the huge fingers being pointed concerning this imbalance deals with China's growing surplus that media members portray as some lurking bogeyman in the closet about to pounce at any moment. This, of course, is similar to how such surpluses in Japan and Germany in the '80s were guaranteed to eventually destroy America.

Twenty years later, Japan and Germany can only dream about having an economy as strong as ours.

Conveniently ignoring their mistaken prognostications regarding the evils of trade deficits in the past, the new ogre for media members is China.

Sadly, they ignore that it will be many years before Chinese citizens become aggressive consumers. As a result, China has to have a trade surplus with its partners. Can't be any other way, and will likely be such for at least another decade, maybe more. Any honest assessment of this situation couldn't possibly suggest otherwise.

As we have now been running uninterrupted trade deficits for more than 30 years without the world coming to an end, ringing alarm bells now is absurd. This is especially true as this deficit has normally come back to America in the form of foreign investment, which is certainly the case today.

Finally, with regard to trade deficits, it should jump at the reader that for the most part, the only time this deficit has declined in the past 30 years was during periods of recession. What does that tell you?

In the end, there's a lot of reasons foreign investors are so bullish on America. If only the media would get it, and, maybe more important, report it.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-s...nvestors-more-confident-u-s-economy-media-are

 

[JeffWartman]

To bad history goes against them - and you

Wrong.

Please respond to the statement...

If you measure the Dow in any real value, the Dow is down.

 

[red states rule]

Wrong.

Please respond to the statement...

If you measure the Dow in any real value, the Dow is down.

Well, tell that to my 401K statement (and yours if you have one) looks pretty good to me

Of course, if you are a Bush hater - must be depressing as hell

 

[JeffWartman]

Well, tell that to my 401K statement (and yours if you have one) looks pretty good to me

Of course, if you are a Bush hater - must be depressing as hell

Once again, you're ducking the question.

Respond, using economic analysis:

If you measure the Dow in any real value, the Dow is down.

 

[maineman]

Once again, you're ducking the question.

Respond, using economic analysis:

If you measure the Dow in any real value, the Dow is down.

Jeff.... I have learned that there isn't a question on earth that RSR cannot duck.

 

[Vintij]

The dow is nothing to celebrate in terms of economic prosperity. It can be manipulated by so many things, most recently by the spending of the RICH. The middle class is still not consuming, the lower class is almost non existant. If you look at study's, the top 5% of americas rich, which is alot of people by the way, are making this market surge do to buying enormous amounts of shares and large tax cuts for them specifically. The reason bush loves to cut taxes for the rich is because it gives the impression of a strong economy due to more spending of the upperclass. Especially when you cut taxes on trading. It encourages more trades, rather than more middle class investment. Also, the minimum wage was just raised but that has such a tiny effect on the economy. I dont see why everyone thinks that the dow is a direct result of the state of the economy. What about when peak oil hits and oil prices soar and everyone is making money off of high price shares? The market will go crazy for a second but the economy will suffer. Do you get it RSR

 

[red states rule]

Once again, you're ducking the question.

Respond, using economic analysis:

If you measure the Dow in any real value, the Dow is down.

and the doom and gloomers like you have been saying the "crash" would come anday now

the housing bubble will burst

a recession is looming

 

[red states rule]

Jeff.... I have learned that there isn't a question on earth that RSR cannot duck.

and there is no fact you will not deny when it goes against you

 

[red states rule]

The dow is nothing to celebrate in terms of economic prosperity. It can be manipulated by so many things, most recently by the spending of the RICH. The middle class is still not consuming, the lower class is almost non existant. If you look at study's, the top 5% of americas rich, which is alot of people by the way, are making this market surge do to buying enormous amounts of shares and large tax cuts for them specifically. The reason bush loves to cut taxes for the rich is because it gives the impression of a strong economy due to more spending of the upperclass. Especially when you cut taxes on trading. It encourages more trades, rather than more middle class investment. Also, the minimum wage was just raised but that has such a tiny effect on the economy. I dont see why everyone thinks that the dow is a direct result of the state of the economy. What about when peak oil hits and oil prices soar and everyone is making money off of high price shares? The market will go crazy for a second but the economy will suffer. Do you get it RSR

If you pay taxes - you got a tax cut

The "rich" paid the most in taxes before the tax cut and they are paying the most in taxes after the tax cut

The top 1% pay 37% in federal income taxes

The bottom 50% pay only about 3% in federal income taxes

A very small minority are paying the taxes - yet libs want to smear them and soak them for more money