Our reader is a retired union worker who follows economic and political news closely. He lives on long Island in New York. He wrote this comment in response to Jonathan V. Last’s article about the media’s insistence on saying that good economic news is “bad for Biden.” His response: “It’s about time!”
Joel wrote:
What we call MSM is owned by very wealthy people whose interests will not be hurt by a Trump re-election. Tax cuts for the wealthy don’t trickle down and never have, but they go into his and their pockets . But even a more benign explanation is that Trump is good for the business of the Washington Post , the New York Times , CNN… All with increased readership and thus advertising sales. Generated by the buffoon.
The jobs report was released on Friday the 5th showing a remarkable stretch of below 4% unemployment not seen since ” we partied like it was 1965″ . Showing millions of more Jobs created on top of all the Jobs recovered since the Covid recession. Jobs recovered in record time for any recovery. After a recession business close employees who were employed have moved on it took from 2010 till 2017 to just recover the Jobs lost in the great recession.
The US has a higher growth rate and lower inflation than almost the entire G20. We have been told by the MSM (not just Right Wing Media ) that the 10s and 10s of millions who either went to work or changed jobs during the recovery, don’t really care about easily getting a Job and changing Jobs for better paying Jobs. Don’t care that the real (inflation adjusted) median wage actually exceeded inflation by a few dollars a week. That most of those raises went to non-supervisory workers. In other words the working class. Not the upper middle class and the wealthy. What they care about we were told was inflation that subsided almost as quickly as it arose. Inflation that was due to supply shortages of Labor and Materials generated by Covid shut downs at home and overseas. By autocrats overseas manipulating oil prices to see an autocrat elected in America. Not due to the typical wage price spirals of the past. Inflation that saw corporations because of the hysteria generated in the media feel free to boost profits by raising prices far and beyond any increase in Labor or material costs.
Laughing in many Corporate Board Rooms that the people have been duped to expect inflation and we are going to give it to them as corporate profits rose to record levels not seen since WW2 and profits still are near record highs. I thought I could sleep after Biden was elected. Garland dispelled that hope quickly. So on Sunday the 7th two days after the employment report , I am up at 4AM. I tuned to CNN . They ran a story I thought was about the fantastic employment report that quickly turned to “but this may not be good for Biden”. And then for the next 8 minutes of perhaps a 10 minute segment diverted to the”oh but inflation”story.
I will say this again !!!! when Reagan declared morning in America inflation was 4.3% not 3.5% as now. Un-employment was still at 7.8% not 3.8% as now . Mortgage rates were at 13% not 7%. Biden compared to the Reagan administration should be declared the second coming by the media.
But it gets worse. As I pointed out by November of 2021 and several times since on this Blog and elsewhere. The media was hyping inflation beyond any reality. The National price of Gas before Putin was $3.21 a gallon as people went back to living their lives after Vaccinations and Oil fields had not fully opened!!!!!. Yet the NY Times , CNN and PBS found people who used a 1000 gallons of milk or Gas a week to highlight the impacts of inflation . Worse the Picture in the NY Times on line was of a station that had to be in the Pacific off the Coast of California with gas at $5.99. As their own writer Niel Irwin pointed out the price of Gas was CHEAPER than it was for 4 whole years from 2011 till 2014 when the Euro crisis tanked oil prices. Pointed out that workers were working significantly fewer hours to fill that tank than in 2011-14 when the National Average never went below $3.60 and went as high as $3.90.
So imagine me waking up two Sundays ago to see the picture on that CNN segment with gas prices at $5.39 a gallon . The National Price was $3.50 . I had paid $303 a gallon in Trumplandia Long Island (Commack ) on the Friday before. I had paid $3.13 a gallon in Hicksville LI to fill my wife’s car the day before the Employment report . I rewound the TV and paused the TV to snap a picture of the $5.39 cent gas on my cell phone. The following Thursday I filled up in Elmont Long Island at an Exxon station cash or credit $3.15. Long Island is not Texas it has new Wind Mills going up , not oil wells and refineries. The inflation report that rattled Wall Street last week was a whopping 3.5% up 2/10ths from its recent lows in December of 2023 . Not exactly historically high and food inflation was 1.2% year over year .
But again the other day Niel Irwin now writing for Axios (?) came to the rescue with an interesting tidbit. This gets a little nerdy. As Krugman points out rents are responsible for 1/3 of the Consumer price index. The US Labor Department computes rents with a factor no or few other Foriegn Economies do “Owner Equivalent Rent”. Something that does not exist in the real world and no body ever actually pays. It is what you would have to pay to rent your own home. If you had to rent it. But I don’t rent my own house I own it (and the mortgage is free and clear ). Neil Irwin pointed out that back in January the BLS changed the way it computes this fictional cost. It added 5% more single family homes and thus 5% fewer less expensive multi family homes and condos to the mix. As detailed in an Email from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that soon got deleted. Now this may be a perfectly legitimate statistical change from their view point . But it is like declaring Ketchup a vegetable . Forcing you to compare apples to oranges.
Rent increases across the Nation have moderated significantly . “BLS data on rents for new tenants out today(4/17) show they rose just 0.4% over the last four quarters, marking the slowest pace of advance since 2010. The largest and most important component of the consumer price index is likely soon to follow them lower.” Dean Baker WELL MORE BAD NEWS FOR BIDEN
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This seems related to the phenomenon where people rate the neighborhood schools where their children attend highly but rate public schools as a whole poorly.
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You beat me to it.
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Perhaps the connection is how Public Schools are portrayed in the media.
“Dog bites man boring ,man bites dog now there is a story”
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Joel is right. The economy is headed in the right direction and the people who report on it have every reason to downplay that fact. If we had a “liberal media,” it would be playing “Happy Days are Here Again.” Instead I hear Stormy Monday (but Tuesday’s twice as bad). What we have is the right of center media, and the faux media.
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Well said
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I would add that Democrats should be aware of and talk about the huge sector of the economy left over from 40 years of Reaganomics that has my old student, Tim, working three jobs to raise a family. Tim will vote their way if they sound like they care about him.
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Does Tim even know which Political Parties take what positions. For me a simple litmus test was the PRO act. 223 Democrats in the House vote for it, only 5 Republicans. 47 Democrats in the Senate commit to vote for it, 0 Republicans.
I am not naive enough to believe that it is not a dog and pony show and that 20% of Democrats who voted for it would not have knowing it would pass. However knowing that Tim does not know who supports what it makes it easy on those Republicans to pretend they care about Tim while they deliver for the Oligarchy forcing Tim to work 3 Jobs .
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Of course he does not. He works three jobs and is not well versed in current events. Since there is a huge percentage of jobs that keep a person working hard, most hard-working people don’t keep up too well. Back in the 19th century, the hacklers union in Great Britain hired a reader to read from the daily news while they combed out flax. There are not many jobs today that would allow that.
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Corporate Media • ‘Nuff Said
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Yes, I know, believe it or not, some people still imagine there is such a thing as a benign despot, er, corporation —; but I say, however harmless your pet corporate entity may seem at present we ignore the DNA of the beast at our peril — so let me leave all and sundry with this little Æsopian Parable torn from today’s headlines —
His Best Friend Was a 250-Pound Warthog. One Day It Decided to Kill Him.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/warthog-attack-texas-exotics/
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Wealth and income inequality are at record levels. Half a million Americans are homeless. Student debt delays the ability of young adults to purchase homes and basic consumer goods. Every day many Americans declare bankruptcy due to medical debts. The federal minimum wage is not enough for some full-time workers to purchase food, housing, and clothing. Food insecurity is experienced by millions of Americans. Millions of children are growing up in poverty. The U.S. is an empire in freefall decline… but, at least for now, the country’s “leadership” support printing more money to fund wars. This economy is not sustainable.
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So the students will help to defeat the President who wants to reduce poverty and to forgive the billions in student debt so as to elect the former president, who wanted to ban Muslims, crack down on student debtors, and cut the taxes of billionaires and corporations.
Crazy world.
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Bingo.
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Joe Biden helped create the student debt crisis. He opposes Medicare for All. He broke the railroad workers’ strike. He supports militarism while criticizing anti-war student protestors. Apparently, Biden supporters believe the “lesser of two evils” argument will work again. Alas, Biden is not the lesser of two evils. He’s just evil.
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So, you voting for Vladimir’s buddy Donnie, James?
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So you can’t rebut his point, so you just carp about Trump, Trump, Trump.
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As that the large response I was typing vaporized the very short response is: A 25% raise plus signing bonuses and post Contract Buttigege negotiating to achieve sick days from 4 of the 5 largest rail carriers can hardly be called “crushed “by anyone with any knowledge of Unions ,the Union movement the circumstances of that labor dispute. A rail strike at the time would not only have “CRUSHED ” these workers but done to the remnants of the Labor movement what happened to my very response to you specifically on the Rail Workers. Which your statement showed you knew next to nothing about. Opposed Medicare for All . The American People oppose Medicare for All , not me I love the Idea. The American people hate anything or anyone they have to pay for. Which is why all it takes is a few lines about Welfare Queens for those who oppose progress and equality to win an Election. But good luck I am sure all of the causes you profess to believe in will fare far better when the fascist authoritarians are in control .
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That response was to James Eales
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There are 650,000 homeless people in America. There are 2.5 million homeless children. I guess children are not people.
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+homeless+people+in+america&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS1073US1074&oq=how+many+homeless+peopl&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqDAgBECMYJxiABBiKBTIGCAAQRRg5MgwIARAjGCcYgAQYigUyBwgCEAAYgAQyBwgDEAAYgAQyBwgEEAAYgAQyBwgFEAAYgAQyBwgGEAAYgAQyBwgHEAAYgAQyBwgIEAAYgAQyBwgJEAAYgATSAQg3NjUwajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+homeless+children+in+america&sca_esv=37d8bbf9c1461c28&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS1073US1074&sxsrf=ACQVn08oFjnvsobftsMAoPzKEgwWvLlYPg%3A1714497831758&ei=JykxZpj4LfmbptQP-u6WiA4&ved=0ahUKEwjYp-uRuuqFAxX5jYkEHXq3BeEQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=how+many+homeless+children+in+america&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiJWhvdyBtYW55IGhvbWVsZXNzIGNoaWxkcmVuIGluIGFtZXJpY2EyChAjGIAEGCcYigUyBRAAGIAEMgsQABiABBiGAxiKBTIIEAAYgAQYogQyCBAAGIAEGKIEMggQABiABBiiBDIIEAAYgAQYogRIxBZQ8AlYsBRwAngBkAEAmAFtoAGkBqoBAzcuMrgBA8gBAPgBAZgCCaACpAXCAgoQABiwAxjWBBhHwgINEAAYgAQYsAMYQxiKBcICBxAAGIAEGA3CAgYQABgHGB7CAgcQIxiwAhgnmAMAiAYBkAYKkgcDNy4yoAe6Qg&sclient=gws-wiz-serp
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Keep repeating lies and people start to believe those lies are real.
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From Heather Cox Richarson’s post of April 26:
And this is the great Gray Lady of news, folks.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-26-2024
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I saw that and thought it was very hostile.
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As if the Times, at such a perilous moment, thinks it’s fine to be petty.
Helps to remember how the newspaper behaved in the face of the Ukrainian Holodomor and Walter Duranty’s denial of the famine.
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Yep. Duranty won a Pulitzer for his reporting from the USSR. It should have been retracted long ago. He was a Stalin sycophant.
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If you haven’t seen Andrea Chalupa’s film, Mr. Jones , it’s well worth watching.
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I loved it.
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Of course, you’re a historian.
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