Pro-Obama Media Always Shocked by Bad Economic News

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What else is new? How anyone can expect good econmic news with Obamanomics is amaing




As megablogger Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit, has noted with amusement, the word "unexpectedly" or variants thereon keep cropping up in mainstream media stories about the economy.

"New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly climbed," reported cnbc.com May 25.

"Personal consumption fell," Business Insider reported the same day, "when it was expected to rise."

"Durable goods declined 3.6 percent last month," Reuters reported May 25, "worse than economists' expectations."

"Previously owned home sales unexpectedly fall," headlined Bloomberg News May 19.

"U.S. home construction fell unexpectedly in April," wrote The Wall Street Journal May 18.

Those examples are all from the last two weeks. Reynolds has been linking to similar items since October 2009.

Mainstream media may finally be catching up. "The latest economic numbers have not been good," David Leonhardt wrote in the May 26 New York Times. "Another report showed that economic growth at the start of the year was no faster than the Commerce Department initially reported -- 'a real surprise,' said Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics."

Which raises some questions. As Instapundit reader Gordon Stewart, quoted by Reynolds on May 17, put it: "How many times in a row can something happen unexpectedly before the experts start to, you know, expect it? At some point, shouldn't they be required to state the foundation for their expectations?"

One answer is that many in the mainstream media have been cheerleading for Barack Obama. They and he both naturally hope for a strong economic recovery. After all, Obama can't keep blaming the economic doldrums on George W. Bush forever.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/05/30/pro-obama_media_always_shocked_by_bad_economic_news_11 0028.html

[red states rule]

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[red states rule]

Even CNBC is asking what happened to the recovery?




A year that was supposed to mark a turning point both for the US and global economy is rapidly turning into the recovery that wasn't.

At a time when things were supposed to be getting better they are instead turning worse: Commodity prices are eating into consumer spending, historically low interest rates haven't done a thing to help housing, and, most worrisome, the job market rebound has been stopped in its tracks.

Is it too early, then, to talk about a double dip? Probably.

Economists busy ratcheting down their forecasts for gross domestic product, unemployment and other metrics still think growth will resume later in the year. But GDP gains, both in the US and around the world, are likely to be considerably slower than anticipated.

"The economy appeared to have everything going for it as we entered the New Year," London-based Capital Economics said this week in an updated analysis of its 2011 outlook. "GDP growth had picked up over the closing months of last year, the activity surveys hit multi-year highs and yet another round of fiscal and monetary stimulus was being put in place."

But that was before inflation pressures—considered by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and other central banks to be muted this year—escalated and changed the recovery's dynamics.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43194727