Photo: Close the Door Here’s an idea that is so obvious it should be a no-brainer: shut the door and save energy. The Close the Door Campaign is asking retailers to conserve energy by keeping their front doors closed. Why do shops all over the place leave their front door wide open? Do they really think that if it’s closed we won’t go in? … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Close That Door–You’re Wasting Energy
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WASHINGTON — If Congress lets unemployment benefits expire this week for the long-term unemployed, they won't be the only ones to feel the pain. The overall economy would suffer, too. Unemployment benefits help drive the economy because the jobless tend to spend every dollar they get, pumping cash into businesses. A cut-off of aid for millions of people unemployed for more than six months could squeeze a fragile economy, analysts say. Among the consequences they envision over the next year: _ Annual economic growth could fall by one half to nearly 1 percentage point. _ Up to 1 million more people could lose their jobs. _ Hundreds of thousands would fall into poverty. “Look for homelessness to rise and food lines to get longer as we approach Christmas if the situation can't be resolved,” says Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. The issue is expected to be taken up in the lame-duck session of Congress that resumed Monday. Among other unfinished business, lawmakers are likely to vote on whether to extend 2001 and 2003 tax cuts that are set to expire at year's end. … That money ripples through the economy, into supermarkets, gasoline stations, utilities, convenience stores. That allows those businesses to hire more people, who, in turn, spend more money. … By contrast, money given to higher-income families – say, through tax cuts – tends to deliver less economic benefit because those taxpayers typically save a big chunk of their windfall. added by: tverdell
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# The New York Times September 17, 2010 Thousands of Trees Killed by New York Tornadoes By N. R. KLEINFIELD and ELISSA GOOTMAN As National Weather Service officials declared Friday that two tornadoes had indeed swept into New York City on Thursday, some tree-lined streets in Brooklyn and Queens looked – at least from the air – like Lego masterpieces that angry children had done their best to sweep aside. Some were more than a century old but still sturdy and doing their jobs. Many others were young and willowy, just getting going. Some of them were inscrutable; no one truly knew them or how they got there. But others felt like old friends. They were wonderful for their blissful shade, to climb, to simply stare at and admire. They were the most visible evidence of the fleeting but brutal storm that barged through New York City on Thursday evening: the ravaged trees. There was a beloved scarlet oak that had stood forever in a farm family’s cemetery in Queens. There was a Callery pear that parrots preferred on a street in Brooklyn. Trees that had stories to them that were now prematurely finished. The tragedy of the storm, which meteorologists said Friday included two tornadoes, was Aline Levakis, 30, from Mechanicsburg, Pa., the sole person to die, when a tree, as it happened, hit her car on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens. Buildings and houses were severely damaged, thousands of customers lost electricity and many commuters were inconvenienced. But destroyed were thousands of trees — trees torn out of sidewalks, others flung 30 or 40 feet through the air, still others shorn of branches, cracked in two. On Friday, as the city plowed ahead in the painstaking process of cleaning up the wreckage and repairing damage, it was still too early to tabulate a reliable tree death count. The city has over 100 species and more than five million trees, some as old as 250. Clearly the loss was great. Adrian Benepe, the city’s parks commissioner, estimated that as many as 2,000 of the 650,000 street trees had been killed or else so crippled that they would have to be cut down. Mr. Benepe said hundreds of the two million trees in the parks were killed or damaged beyond hope. Hundreds more lost limbs. Storms periodically batter the city’s trees. A freak storm in August of last year toppled about 500 trees in Central Park. The storm on Thursday left Manhattan and the Bronx virtually unscathed but was merciless in the other boroughs. “It’s hard to compare to previous storms,” Mr. Benepe said, “but given the brevity of the storm, the extent of the damage seems unparalleled.” As workers began carving up the trees and trucking them away, they found decimated oaks, Norway maples, catalpas, and more and more. Mr. Benepe said the older, larger trees, like the maples, oaks and London planes that were planted along city streets, suffered worst. They have a lot of leaf surface that catches the wind, and they are inflexible. Many Callery pears, with their showy white blossoms, also went. Although smaller, they are weak-wooded. The storm wiped out a dozen or so willow trees lining Willow Lake and Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens. Some of them fell into the lakes. On the blocks around Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village, Queens, hundreds of elderly elms, oaks and maples succumbed. Youngsters — 7 to 10 years old — were yanked out like matchsticks and whipped through the area. Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, walked around the bruised neighborhood on Friday snapping pictures of fallen timber. One majestic tree, regarded as the neighborhood’s treasure, was an immense scarlet oak in the Pullis Farm Cemetery, an early American farm family burial ground. It was believed to be more than 110 years old. It was a beauty, just about perfectly symmetrical. “When you touched the tree, you felt like you were touching a part of the 19th century,” Mr. Holden said. The storm tore it down, ending its long life in a blink. “This hit me the hardest,” Mr. Holden said. “Some people said can we pick it up and put it back? But you can’t.” In All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village stood another cherished tree, a towering live oak thought to be 180 years old. It was about 90 feet tall. After the storm, all that remained was the bottom 12 feet. “It was a cool-looking tree,” said Daniel C. Austin Jr., the cemetery’s vice president. “It had these beautiful arms. Every time we drove by it, we used to talk about it.” Grief was palpable in Forest Hills Gardens, a private nest of Tudor and Georgian homes in Queens that is one of the city’s greenest neighborhoods, home to hundreds of trees. It was only recently that the residents’ association planted 70 more — maples, oaks and London planes. These newcomers, so much life left in them, bore the brunt of the storm. Edward and Vera Ward, who live just outside the enclave, stroll through the neighborhood every day, drawn by the serenity and welcoming shade of the tall trees. On Friday, Mr. Ward, 58, was snapping pictures of men sawing a supine tree into bits. “It’s like a part of me is gone,” he said, and his eyes welled up. An elderly man was mourning a maple tree that he had planted outside his house on Dartmouth Street when he was a teenager. It grew as he grew. It was one more that the storm took. In Park Slope, Brooklyn, a Callery pear tree stands across the street from the house of Nick Lerman, 27, a Brooklyn College student. Almost two-thirds of its canopy had been ripped off. “I’m looking at maybe 37 percent of a tree,” Mr. Lerman said. “Now it kind of looks like a bald guy with half a tonsure.” He said parrots shuttled back and forth from the tree to the one across from it. He said he hoped that the tree would live, that the parrots would still have it. Reuben Slater had his own tree-loss story. He is 13 and lives in Park Slope. When he walks to school, he passes a massive ash tree with a trunk that gives way to branches that form a V. When he was younger, he thought of it as the tree of life. The storm carved off half the V. The tree is expected to survive, but to no longer resemble its old self. That saddens Reuben. He sees a tree “with a broken arm.” He snatched a small branch off the ground. He said he would keep it in his room. “I’m going to name it Pablo,” he said. “I’ve always loved that name.” Fernanda Santos and Rebecca White contributed reporting. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/09/18/nyregion/TREES/TREES-articleInlin… added by: EthicalVegan
ABC’s World News whored itself out Thursday night to a hapless effort by the White House to prove its “stimulus” spending created a lot of jobs. “Still ahead on World News,” an easily impressed Diane Sawyer hyped, “We have the list! That White House stimulus, the top success stories. An exclusive report.” Jon Karl proceeded to highlight “the greatest hits of the stimulus program,” including a payout to the owner of MSNBC, but the White House examples he touted totaled a piddling 418 jobs. Sawyer announced the “President’s stimulus program” of $818 billion was “designated to create or save millions of jobs” and though “Republicans say it’s been largely unsuccessful,” the “White House is firing back, and our Jon Karl has a look at the top of the list, the ones that have worked the best.” Previewing a report to be released Friday by the Vice President’s office, “100 Recovery Act Projects that Are Changing America” ( AP dispatch ), Karl trumpeted how “the White House will detail the top 100 stimulus programs in the country. We have an exclusive list at what they considered the greatest hits of the stimulus program.” Karl began with a project in New Jersey “where a toxic area contaminated by an old electronics plant is being transformed into a new industrial park, thanks to $30 million stimulus dollars” and, he raved, “the project has already created 68 jobs.” Showing the effort to which ABC went to produce the advertisement for President Obama, the Washington DC-based Karl showed himself at the site of his second example in New York City, to which he credited 120 jobs: “The White House is also touting the $175 million in stimulus funds being spent here at New York’s Staten Island ferry terminal, replacing nine bridges like this one that are in a dangerous state of disrepair.” Next, after noting Senator John McCain’s claim the spending has been a waste, Karl cited “230 jobs created” by “$51 million for a new facility for injured veterans at Fort Bliss, Texas” and, finally, without any job creation claim, “$25 million in tax credits for GE to build a new plant for energy efficient appliances in Louisville, Kentucky.” That would be a little corporate welfare for MSNBC’s owner. Karl concluded that adding up all the jobs in the 100 projects in the White House list, though he did not cite a total claimed number, “comes to $250,000 per job, but the White House says the actual cost per job is much lower, because each of these projects will have ripple effects, creating many more jobs in the future.” Sawyer then reiterated the White House line: “So they say these are facts, too, and these are the facts that show it’s been working.” The MRC’s Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide this transcript of the story on the Thursday, September 16 edition of ABC’s World News: DIANE SAWYER: As we know, there’s been an ongoing debate in this country about the jobs crisis, and the President’s stimulus program – $818 billion designated to create or save millions of jobs. Republicans say it’s been largely unsuccessful. But tonight, the White House is firing back, and our Jon Karl has a look at the top of the list, the ones that have worked the best. Jon? JONATHAN KARL: That’s right. This is in direct response to all those Republican attacks. The White House will detail the top 100 stimulus programs in the country. We have an exclusive list at what they considered the greatest hits of the stimulus program. The report highlights projects like this one in South Plainfield, New Jersey, where a toxic area contaminated by an old electronics plant is being transformed into a new industrial park, thanks to $30 million stimulus dollars. JARED BERNSTEIN, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF ECONOMIST: We’re creating employment, getting folks in there, cleaning up that environment, and this will be a new industrial park creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs in decades to come. KARL: The project has already created 68 jobs and is designed to be an economic boon to the South Plainfield area once it’s completed next year. The White House is also touting the $175 million in stimulus funds being spent here at New York’s Staten Island ferry terminal, replacing nine bridges like this one that are in a dangerous state of disrepair. JANETTE SADIK-KHAN, NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: We’re thrilled to have stimulus money available to repair the vital links that will keep New York City strong. KARL: There are now 120 workers on the job here, rebuilding a transportation hub that services 65,000 commuters every day. The White House report is a direct response to Senators John McCain and Tom Coburn, who have issued three separate reports on what they call the top 100 wasteful stimulus projects. Those reports highlighted things like the $3.4 million spent on the so-called “turtle tunnel,” allowing animals to go from one side of Florida’s Route 27 to the other. Here’s what McCain told us about his last report. SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ): I think all of them are waste. I think none of them, really, have any meaningful impact on creating jobs. BERNSTEIN: Republicans have often criticized the recovery act without recognizing projects specifically like the ones in this report. KARL: Projects like $51 million for a new facility for injured veterans at Fort Bliss, Texas – 230 jobs created; $25 million in tax credits for GE to build a new plant for energy efficient appliances in Louisville, Kentucky. GE is investing $600 million of its own money, bringing production now done in China back to the U.S. The White House lists the total cost and the number of jobs created for each of these top projects. Now, Diane, doing a little math, it comes to $250,000 per job, but the White House says the actual cost per job is much lower, because each of these projects will have ripple effects, creating many more jobs in the future. SAWYER: So they say these are facts, too, and these are the facts that show it’s been working. Okay, thank you, Jon Karl.
“Good News, Rich People: Poor People Don’t Want to Raise Your Taxes” That’s the snarky headline for Kayla Webley’s 5-paragraph NewsFeed item filed earlier today at Time.com. “Nearly half of the lowest earners among us want the rich to stay rich,” complained Webley, adding: As Congress debates whether to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows the country is as divided as Washington when it comes to increasing taxes for the wealthiest Americans. According to the poll, 54% support raising taxes on the rich, while 44% are opposed. Meaning that while the tax increases proposed by President Obama would affect only a minority of Americans (Obama says just 2%), nearly half of Americans — despite being completely unaffected by the proposed increases — don’t want to see anyone’s taxes increased. To accompany the story, Time editors included a stock photo by Getty Images of a man wearing a gray blazer with crisp $20 bills tucked in his breast pocket (see screencap above, click image for full size). In her rush to complain about nearly half of “poor” Americans favoring tax cuts for the “rich,” Webley neglected to pass along an interesting quote from a Democrat featured in the AP story to which she linked. Noted reporter Alan Fram: While about three-fourths of Democrats favor raising taxes on the rich, about half of independents and nearly two-thirds of Republicans oppose the idea. Support for cutting everyone’s taxes exceeds four in 10 people in every region of the U.S. except the Midwest, where one-third back the proposal. Even among people earning under $50,000 a year — mainstays of the Democratic Party — 43 percent want to continue the tax cuts for all. “You shouldn’t be penalized for making a good living,” said Charles Ricotta, 55, a Democrat from Dunkirk, N.Y. “If you feel the government is cutting your throat, you might feel hesitant about hiring people.” Watching the government soak the rich may temporarily make you feel good by proxy, but in the long run it kills economic growth and the jobs that come from that. That’s the sentiment some 43% of “poor” taxpayers seem to subscribe to. It’s a shame that Time magazine doesn’t, or worse, refuses to, get it.
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Time Magazine Annoyed at Limited Reach of Class Warfare on Views on Tax Cuts
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In the drug-plagued western state of Michoacan, meanwhile, the entire 45-man police force resigned in the town of Purepero on Tuesday, saying their jobs were too dangerous, Mayor Luis Alberto Tellez Pulido said. Soldiers and state police temporarily took over patrolling duties in the town of 25,000. It was the second town in Michoacan to face such a mass resignation in less than a year. In December, all the town officials in Tancitaro, Michoacan, resigned, also claiming their jobs were too dangerous. A month later, a new town government took over and fired the entire police force, suspecting its officers were in league with drug gangs. Michoacan is considered the home territory of the violent La Familia drug cartel, which has mounted several ambush-style attacks on police. http://www.brandonsun.com/world/breaking-news/police-force-resigns-in-mexican-to… http://sportimes.com.mx/portal/images/stories/redesdepoder/redes15eptiembre/renu… added by: ibrake4rappers13
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When Bush pushed CAFTA through Congress, it was a very close win for the GOP's Big Business allies. The final vote was 217-215( http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll443.xml ). Although 187 Democrats voted against it– only 15 joining the Republicans in favor– Boehner, Blunt, Cantor, Ryan delivered for their corporate masters once again. For the last month Boehner has been running around the country like a bright orange chicken without a head squawking, “Where are the jobs, Mr. President?” It's an ironic question coming from one of the engineers responsible for passing trade policies that have systematically decimated the basis of America's manufacturing base. Boehner and his cronies– their wallets fat with gargantuan payoffs from outsourcers– have voted for every single bad trade bill that has ever promised to ship American jobs overseas. For Boehner to publicly ask where the jobs are is a slap in the face to every American worker and an insult to the intelligence of every Ohio voter. In the Senate, Obama looked at the exact same CAFTA bill Boehner and the Republicans did. Then-Senator Obama voted against it. ( http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?con… ) Several conservative Senate Republicans voted NO as well (John Thune, Lindsey Graham, David Vitter, Mike Enzi, Richard Shelby…) but voting to send American jobs to slave wage economies: Jim DeMint, Richard Burr, Mike DeWine, Chuck Grassley, Blanche Lincoln, John McCain, Ben Nelson and, of course Miss McConnell. All the Democrats voted against it with the exception of a small handful of corporate whores who habitually vote with the GOP against working families. But let's go back to the House for a moment, where every member has to face the voters in November. Why are Ohio voters thinking of reelecting John Boehner, who has screwed them on WTO, screwed them on CAFTA, screwed them on NAFTA and has the temerity to be boosting plans for more unbalanced trade legislation with a handful of more low-wage countries. I know he wants to destroy the standard of living of American workers and make them into serfs but who does he think will be buying American goods and services to keep our consumer-driven economy afloat if there are no decent jobs? Not everyone can be a caddy or bartender! Instead of asking Justin Coussoule for another quote about Boehner's record on jobs and how it has devastated businesses and the economy from Butler County up through Darke, Miami and Mercer, we took a look at a perfectly framed ad by Rob Miller, the former marine running against Joe “You Lie” Wilson. Although South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham warned that CAFTA would be disastrous for South Carolina's textile industry and small businesses (and voted NO), at the last minute Wilson was persuaded by Boehner's slick blandishments and voted YES, along with Gresham Barrett and Bob Inglis, both of whom have been disposed of by tea party activists. Miller's TV ad should leave Wilson reeling: ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUWs7IlR020 ) We caught up with Rob this morning and asked him if Wilson, just one Member of Congress, really hurt South Carolina with his vote. We knew the answer but we wanted to see how Rob would put it. He put it well: > When Joe Wilson went to Congress in December 2001, South Carolina’s > unemployment rate was 5.7 percent. Today, 10.8 percent of > South Carolinians are without jobs, including 112,500 people who > have lost their manufacturing jobs. > Manufacturing was the backbone of South Carolina’s economy, until > unfair trade deals like CAFTA went into effect. CAFTA sent thousands > of our jobs overseas, and people all across the state knew that > would happen before the first vote was cast. > But that didn’t stop Joe Wilson. Joe Wilson voted for CAFTA and broke > his promise to protect South Carolina’s workers, sending their jobs to > Central America. The real insult is that Joe Wilson cast the deciding > vote for CAFTA. If Wilson voted “No” CAFTA would not have passed. > It was that simple, and Joe Wilson didn’t have the courage to do what’s > right. South Carolina towns are dying– people are struggling to put > food on the table– and it all comes down to Joe Wilson turning his back > on South Carolina’s workers by voting “Yes” for CAFTA. I hope lots of Democrats watch Rob's ad. Similar ones would be especially effective against Roy Blunt (R-MO), Mike Castle (R-DE), Mark Kirk (R-IL), and John Boozman (R-AR) four particularly corrupt Wall Street darlings who are all trying to upgrade from the House to the Senate. It may also be useful for Democrats in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and New Mexico to keep in mind as Charlie Bass, Mike Fitzpatrick and Steve Pearce try to slip back into office without letting voters know they were major players in the battles to pass CAFTA and similarly toxic trade bills. added by: toyotabedzrock
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You can’t swing a dead cat these days without hitting some pathetically liberal media member claiming that despite how bad things are now they’d get worse if Republicans won in November. Exhibit A: New York Times columnist Bob Herbert’s article Saturday. In it, he somewhat honestly told his readers about the misshaps of the President he personally helped get elected. Fair enough, but the conclusion – almost like a talking points memo from the very Party he unashamedly supports! – was that things would get a lot worse if Republicans took back Congress: People feel that the country is going to hell, that the system itself has broken down, and President Obama and the Democrats have been unable to assuage that awful feeling. The Democrats are in deep, deep trouble because they have not effectively addressed the overwhelming concern of working men and women: an economy that is too weak to provide the jobs they need to support themselves and their families. With the nation losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month in early-2009, the president and his allies in Congress could have rallied the citizenry to participate in the difficult work of nation-building here at home. He could have called on everyone to share in the sacrifices that needed to be made, and he could have demanded much more from the financial and corporate elites who were being bailed out with the people’s money. Makes sense, right? Just wait: The Democrats are facing an election debacle because they did not respond adequately to their constituents’ most dire needs. The thing that is really weird is that a strengthened G.O.P. will undoubtedly make matters so much worse. Really? The unemployment rate was 4.6 percent when the Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007. It’s now 9.6 percent. Over 7 million Americans have lost their jobs since the Democrats took over Congress. 7 million! And shills like Herbert have the gall to claim conditions would worsen if Republicans were back in power. Hey Mr. Herbert: how about proving your point with actual data rather than inflammatory rhetoric? I know, I know – that would be too much like journalism for a shill like this.
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NYT’s Herbert: Obama and Dems Created Mess But GOP Would Be Worse
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Recently, the economic news has been troubling. The latest jobs report showed another month with net losses, GDP was revised downward to a ” tepid ” 1.6 percent for the second quarter and others sectors like housing have still shown signs of weakness . Obama’s “recovery summer” came to a close with 14.9 million Americans unemployed and many worried about the overall economy. Some politicians are worried about being unemployed come November if the economy continues to crawl. The administration wanted the summer of 2010 to support Obama’s claims that recovery was underway thanks to the stimulus package and numerous bailouts. So Obama and other administration officials announced a tour of infrastructure groundbreakings around the country – projects paid for by the $787 billion “recovery act.” But that costly legislation and other stimulus attempts have failed, even by the Obama administration’s own standards according to nearly 100 economists. US News & World Report found that almost 100 ” prominent ” economists wrote a letter to the president in June 2010 telling Obama the stimulus failed and federal spending must be reined in. Yet the mainstream media have gone out of its way to bolster the stimulus , crediting it with jobs ( saved or created ) in towns across the country. Rarely have journalists taken Obama to task for his grandiose and empty promises about job growth as the result of the stimulus. And as bad news about jobs and other economic indicators has stacked up against the White House, journalists have continued to hunt for silver linings in storm clouds. On Sept. 3, “American Morning” found the ” bright spot ” in August’s loss of 54,000 jobs. Ali Velshi called the report a “glass one-quarter full,” but his two guests that morning were upbeat. Speaking of the 9.6 percent unemployment rate, Shawn Tully of Fortune magazine told viewers “This is actually not such bad news.” The news media began looking for good economic news early in the Obama presidency, desperate to credit him for turning things around. Newsweek even surprised Obama by declaring the recession over in its Aug. 3, 2009 issue. Broadcast networks also jumped on the bandwagon interviewing economists like Lakshman Achuthan who told CBS the economic indicators “are emphatic that recovery begins this summer [2009].” Although GDP showed gains beginning in the third quarter of 2009, the April 13, 2010 Wall Street Journal reported that the economists who decide when recessions begin and end ” stopped short of calling an end to the downturn that started in December 2007 .” Summer of Recovery that Wasn’t On June 17, 2010, the White House launched its ” Recovery Summer ” tour of groundbreakings at infrastructure projects paid for by the stimulus package. “As part of Recovery Summer, President Obama, Vice President Biden and other administration officials will travel to more than two dozen Recovery Act project sites in the coming weeks, highlighting the surge in project activity and the Recovery Act’s steady climb to 3.5 million jobs by the end of the year,” the White House press release said. CBS followed the president to Ohio the next day and promoted his tour. Katie Couric said, “With the oil spill dominating so much of the news, President Obama wanted to remind everyone today he hasn’t forgotten about unemployment, which remains close to ten percent. So he went to Ohio to mark a milestone.” What milestone? The 10,000 th project paid by stimulus package that the news media sold as a huge job creator. Couric noted that the recession wiped out more than eight million jobs, but stressed that nearly 900,000 jobs were created in November 2009. Couric’s brief report had no criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of the economy. One night later, on June 19, CBS’s Jeff Glor cited an improvement of the unemployment rate in 37 states calling it “one more sign the economy may be improving overall,” as the lead in to a story about four struggling families. On the subject of jobs, the media have grasped for any positive indicators they can find, but have rarely criticized Obama for the lengthy stretch of high unemployment. In 2009, the rate hit a 26-year-high and the United States saw the most jobs lost in a single year since 1940 , yet journalists omitted the failure of the stimulus package and refused to hold Obama accountable for the jobs losses. The media were thrilled when the May jobs report came out reflecting the hiring of 411,000 temporary Census employees, even though those jobs would only last a couple of months. Headlines at CNN.com and other outlets emphasized the “fastest pace” of job creation in 10 years. But now Obama’s “recovery summer” has gone bust . According to James Pethokoukis, Money and Politics columnist for Reuters, it “must have looked like a pretty safe wager for the Obama administration” at the beginning of June. Jobs were added in the spring and the economy was growing, but as Pethokoukis noted “the economy has fallen back to earth.” He cited a number of concerning economic data, including falling private sector job growth, very high unemployment and a growing number of people too discouraged to look for work. ‘Green Shoots,’ Silver Linings and ‘Glimmers of Hope’ It doesn’t seem to matter how bad the economy gets under Obama’s leadership, the mainstream media cling to whatever small piece of good news they can find. That’s exactly how journalists have spun many of the monthly jobs reports – by emphasizing the unemployment rate over the number of jobs lost or vice versa depending on which sounded better. After 54,000 jobs were lost (net) in August and the unemployment rate ticked back up to 9.6 percent, CNN emphasized that 67,000 private-sector jobs that had been created and found two economists to talk up the economy. Just two days later on Sept. 5, CNN’s Ali Velshi said, “There are fresh signs of an economic recovery, but where are the jobs?” At least as far back at April 2009, media outlets were starting to talk about “green shoots” in the economy. Ben Bernanke likely started the trend after telling “60 Minutes” he detected some “green shoots” of economic recovery. Journalists in particular embraced the phrase along with others like silver lining , ” bright spot ,” and ” glimmers of hope .” Newsweek , all three broadcast networks, major newspapers like The New York Times and Washington Post and other outlets have mentioned “green shoots” when discussing the economy since Obama took office. Some have used the good news to bolster the president. Former Clinton administration official George Stephanopoulos was upbeat about an “economic turnaround” on “This Week” Aug. 2, 2009. “The president’s poll numbers may be wilting a bit in the summer heat, but each day this week brought those economic green shoots he’s been counting on,” he said. “Monday, new home sales jumped, the biggest monthly increase in eight years. Tuesday, home prices, their first increase in three years. Wednesday, a surprising step up in manufacturing activity. Thursday, new jobless claims fall to their lowest level since January,” Stephanopoulos said. “And Friday, the clearest sign yet that the recession might be easing. Second-quarter growth falling much more slowly than expected as the stock market capped off its best month since 2002.” Context, however, shows the wishful thinking – or spinning – behind those remarks. The ABC anchor was talking up the economy because growth fell more slowly than it had been – not because the economy was actually growing. On Nov. 24, 2009, Jim Cramer spoke of “areas of encouragement” despite “horrible” unemployment numbers on the “Today” show with Matt Lauer. LAUER: One in 10 Americans out of work in this country right now. Got other people who are underemployed, then there are the whole group of people who are worried about losing their jobs. But you keep hearing economists and experts talk about green shoots. CRAMER: Right. LAUER: These are – these are areas of encouragement. What do you see as green shoots right now? CRAMER: Auto sales, not bad. October, pretty good. LAUER: Post cash for clunkers? CRAMER: Yeah. November, not bad. We don’t have a lot of cars, excess inventory. There’s not a lot of excess inventory at retailers. Retailers are saying that November’s been pretty good. We also saw a very good number for existing home sales, some stabilization. Those are all three very good signs, Matt. In contrast to the pro-administration media, CNBC’s Rick Santelli has brought perspective to many economic stories including the issue of unemployment On March 29, 2010, Santelli warned that the “traditional media” would overplay the upcoming jobs report that would probably show lower jobless numbers. Santelli explained that the report would mislead because of many temporary census jobs that would be included. “Well, you know I think the market, many want to believe, many want to believe in the green shoots,” Santelli said. “They want to believe that optimism is part of the medicine. You know, I’m not sure if I’m in that camp but I think there’s going to be a couple or three months in a row here, where whether it’s GDP or whether it’s job data, that’s going to have the possibility to look better.” “I think those that understand that this type of job creation isn’t going to last and it isn’t going to ultimately make up the 200,000 we need just to remain neutral, but it will move markets, yes. And I think interest rates on this holiday Friday, should we get a 250,000 or higher number, is going to be wild. And it shouldn’t be, but it will,” Santelli concluded. Like this article? Then sign up for our newsletter, The Balance Sheet .
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Media Seek Silver Linings in Economic Storm Clouds Despite Bad News about Jobs, GDP and Other Sectors
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