You could set your clock by this kind of nonsense. No seriously. Try it yourself. Set up a Google Alert for “unexpected and economy” or “unexpected and housing.” Like. Clockwork:
U.S. home starts unexpectedly fell last month as unusually cold weather hampered construction, but a jump in building permits to a 14-month high indicated the housing market recovery was intact. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday housing starts fell 4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 557,000 units, pulled down by a drop in groundbreaking activity for single-family dwellings. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected housing starts to rise to 580,000 units.
Quite the relief to know that the housing market recovery is intact, huh? I guess all the liberal economists who were pushing for another stimulus package – NYT headline New Consensus Sees Stimulus Package as Worthy Step – were just overreacting.
That in itself is probably a good thing, given how the last stimulus totally failed to create surplus jobs even when money was allocated to real projects. Which it usually wasn’t. Ergo the White House’s asinine “pay raises equal new jobs” accounting. And their “we’ll just make it up” approach to Wisconsin and Massachusetts employment. And of course the phantom districts.
At least this all wasn’t painfully predictable months ago:
And while we’re at it, I never did get around to blogging this from late last year:
The Democratic-controlled Senate on Saturday cleared away a Republican filibuster of a huge end-of-year spending bill that rewards most federal agencies with generous budget boosts. The $1.1 trillion measure combines much of the year’s unfinished budget work — only a $626 billion Pentagon spending measure would remain — into a 1,000-plus-page spending bill that would give the Education Department, the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and others increases far exceeding inflation. The 60-34 vote met the minimum threshold to end the GOP filibuster.
All of which a roundabout way of asking: can someone please explain to me which of Obama’s media cheerleaders I’m supposed to be listening to today? Is the economy still in a rut, proving that we need another spending spree on Big Government liberal pet projects? Or is the vaunted economic recovery “intact”? I don’t really have a preference one way or another. It’s the anxiety of not knowing that’s just so gnawing!
References and related after the jump…
References:
* New Home Sales “Plunge Unexpectedly” After Media-Surveyed Economists Miss Projections By 13% [MR]
* Housing starts fall, but permits at 14-month high [Reuters]
* New Consensus Sees Stimulus Package as Worthy Step [NYT]
* STIMULUS WATCH: Unemployment unchanged by projects [AP]
* Pay raises used to tally number of jobs saved by stimulus [AP]
* Don’t count on stimulus job tally [JSOnline]
* Porkulus job numbers “wildly exaggerated”: Boston Globe? [Hot Air]
* $6.4 Billion Stimulus Goes to Phantom Districts [Watchdog.org]
* Video: Noted news “organization” blasts White House stimulus numbers [Hot Air]
* Senate GOP denied on spending filibuster attempt [Daily Journal]
Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* Media Bias
* Economy
* American Politics
