Business Press Gets Nasty as Economy Worsens

[marmar]

from AlterNet:



Posted by Zach Carter at 7:10 am
September 14, 2010

Business Press Gets Nasty as Economy Worsens
Posted by Zach Carter on @ 7:10 am


The economy is terrible. Jobs are nowhere to be found. Wall Street bonuses are through the roof. But mainstream business journalism is still praising the con-men who created this mess, yet attacking anybody who takes real solutions—like government spending to create jobs—seriously.

Whatever corporate journalists say, the American economy will not recover until policymakers and the media acknowledge the mistakes of the past and move forward with a new economic agenda focused on middle-class prosperity, rather than financial evisceration by elites.

Creating jobs is key

As Annie Lowrey notes for The Washington Independent, while President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package has dramatically slowed the pace of job losses, it hasn’t been enough to make a serious dent in the unemployment rate, which currently stands at 9.6 percent. Without a serious new set of stimulus measures, we’ll see that rate stay near double-digits for years to come.

But the stimulus package is not the only policy relevant to the economic recovery. The financial excess that sparked the Great Recession was not an accident, and much of it was straightforwardly illegal—even by the remarkably weak regulatory standards of the past decade.

As I emphasize for AlterNet, under President George W. Bush, bankers got away with all kinds of frauds. They’re continuing to get away with them under Obama. The allegations of wrongdoing range from cooking the books to the outright laundering of hundreds of billions of dollars in drug money. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/09/14/business-press-gets-nasty-as-economy-worsens/

[ClarkUSA]

1. Zach Carter is full of shit. The economy is getting better, not worse.

Employment numbers rose faster than expected last month. Last night, Keith Olbermann reported that the federal deficit is down a whopping 8% after President Obama's first year in office.

Today's economic headlines include the following two highlights, which belie the bullshit doomsday memes coming from certain op-ed bloggers at Alternet:

August retail sales up 0.4 pct., best in 5 months
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x441206

Inventories in U.S. Rise at Fastest Pace in Two Years
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x441135

Facts trump rhetoric every time.

[Brickbat]

2. The August gain is seasonal, coming from back-to-school shopping and deep sales on such items, as

well as tax holidays for BTS shopping. I would guess.

[Name removed]

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