A ‘Job Creation’ Stimulus Is a Terrible Idea

I agree with Paul Krugman on at least one thing: the continued prospects for high unemployment in America is a bad thing. In his NYT column Monday, Krugman the Keynesian wrote:

The damage from sustained high unemployment will last much longer. The long-term unemployed can lose their skills, and even when the economy recovers they tend to have difficulty finding a job, because they’re regarded as poor risks by potential employers. Meanwhile, students who graduate into a poor labor market start their careers at a huge disadvantage — and pay a price in lower earnings for their whole working lives. Failure to act on unemployment isn’t just cruel, it’s short-sighted.

Unemployment is currently 10.2 percent, and if you factor out the part-time workers it is 17.5 percent. Banks aren’t lending to the limited demand from manufacturers, further depressing employment opportunities. And the recovery outlook right now is bleak. Krugman is right, we have to do something.

His plan, however, is not the answer. Not even close.

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Tags: Paul Krugman, Reason Foundation, stimulus, the New York Times, unemployment
Posted Dec 2nd 2009 at 9:29 am in Economics, News, Politics | 3923438 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/arandazzo/2009/12/02/a-job-creation-stimulus-is-a-terrible-idea/A+%27Job+Creation%27+Stimulus+Is+a+Terrible+Idea2009-12-02+16%3A29%3A20Anthony+Randazzo

The Media’s Complicity: Analysis of ACORN Coverage

The mainstream media were complicit in their coverage of the ACORN scandal. Their behavior was and continues to be an insult to democracy and journalistic responsibility as the Fourth Estate has ignored facts, engaged in one-sided sourcing, and avoided basic and inherently important journalistic questioning.

First, there was avoidance. Some media outlets simply ignored the story. On Sept. 15, five days after the Maryland tape was released, ABC’s Charlie Gibson said, “I don’t even know about it… so you’ve got me at a loss” and said that the story might be “just one you leave to the cables.” But, Gibson was not alone in his lack of knowledge. The New York Times did not cover the story for nearly a week. On Sept. 26, Clark Hoyt, The Times’ Public Editor, acknowledged the paper’s tardiness, but insinuated that the story was lacking in facts:

But for days, as more videos were posted and government authorities rushed to distance themselves from Acorn, The Times stood still.  Some stories, lacking facts, never catch fire…But others do, and a newspaper like The Times needs to be alert to them or wind up looking clueless or, worse, partisan itself.

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Tags: ABC, ACORN, ACORN Los Angeles, ACORN Miami, ACORN New York
Posted Oct 21st 2009 at 10:03 am in ACORN, Media Criticism | 18734182 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bhallowell/2009/10/21/the-medias-complicity-analysis-of-acorn-coverage/The+Media%27s+Complicity%3A+Analysis+of+ACORN+Coverage2009-10-21+17%3A03%3A23Billy+Hallowell

Planting the Seeds: The Politicized Art Behind the ACORN Plan

Everything you needed to know about the unorthodox roll out of the now-notorious ACORN sting videos was hidden in plain sight in my Sept. 7 column, “Katie Couric, Look in the Mirror.” ACORN was not the only target of those videos; so were Katie, Brian, Charlie and every other mainstream media pooh-bah.

They were not going to report this blockbuster unless they were forced to. And they were. What’s more, it ain’t over yet. Not every hint I dropped in that piece about what was to come has played itself out yet.Stay tuned.

When filmmaker and provocateur James O’Keefe came to my office to show me the video of him and his friend, Hannah Giles, going to the Baltimore offices of ACORN – the nation’s foremost “community organizers” – dressed as a pimp and a prostitute and asking for – and getting – help for various illegal activities, he sought my advice. In the past, Mr. O’Keefe created brilliant social satire that rocked his college campus and even made its way on to the talk-radio and cable-news shows, but the magnitude of his latest adventure had the potential to rock the political establishment.

I was awed by Mr. O’Keefe’s guts and amazed by the footage, but explained that the mainstream media would try to kill this important and illuminating expose about a corrupt and criminal political racket, and that the well-funded political left would go into “war room” mode, with 25-year-old Mr. O’Keefe and 20-year-old cohort Miss Giles in the cross hairs. I felt I had a moral obligation to protect these young muckrakers from the left and from the media, and to devise a strategy that would force the media’s hand. (more…)

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Tags: ABC, ACORN, acorn scandal, Bertha Lewis, Brian Williams
Posted Sep 20th 2009 at 7:08 pm in ACORN, Featured Story, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 5858303 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/abreitbart/2009/09/20/planting-the-seeds-the-politicized-art-behind-the-acorn-plan/Planting+the+Seeds%3A+The+Politicized+Art+Behind+the+ACORN+Plan2009-09-21+02%3A08%3A32Andrew+Breitbart