That's my column!
August 09, 2012 | 06:22 AM

Well, I COULD have written it - not as well, of course, but still hit all the basic points. Sowell's book is great. For those who need an easier introduction to basic economics, I'd recommend Hazlitt's "Economics in One Lesson". Very short, but to the point.

Concerning the media coverage, I well remember how this worked during George H. W. Bush's term. If there was any positive data that come out, the media would pretty much always follow it with, "But that doesn't help James Wilson who just lost his job". Or they'd announce some company that just closed. Never mentioned was that in the very best of economic situations, people still lose their jobs and companies close. If that was pointed out, no reason to ever run their biased sob stories.

But one thing I'll never forget, since it was so blatantly absurd. It was either the day after Clinton was elected or maybe the day after that. I was listening to one of the big network morning shows (Today or Good Morning America) and one of the female members of the show came on with the latest economic report, declaring that things were already getting better since the election of Clinton!

Now, even if you are generous and say that this was legit because people were happy Clinton was elected and thus did better things even before he took office, it still reveals major bias or dishonesty. Because included in the announced improvement was the time frame it was based on. I don't recall exactly now, but it was either data from September or October - and I'm pretty sure it was September.

Well, I guess if you can give Clinton credit for that, we shouldn't be surprised that Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing!

DaBigKahuna