New at Reason: John Stossel on the White House's Economic Hype

October 1, 2009

This Friday, September's job-loss total will be announced. Whatever the numbers, administration officials surely will tell us that life is better—because of them. "We brought the global economy back from the brink," President Obama said at the close of the G-20 meeting last week. "(B)ecause of the bold and coordinated action that we took, millions of jobs have been saved or created; the decline in output has been stopped; financial markets have come back to life."

As John Stossel writes, this has been the president's theme: Obama's so-called stimulus package, bailouts for politically connected banks and industries, ludicrously wasteful programs like Cash for Clunkers, etc. have saved America from the greatest disaster since the Great Depression. But as Stossel points out, this theme runs up against some rather unfortunate facts.

Read all about it here.

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Attorney|10.1.09 @ 12:05PM|#

Whatever the numbers, administration officials surely will tell us that life is better-because of them.

You guys are supposed to be journalists. How come none of you seems to know the difference between a hyphen and an em dash?

Naga Sadow|10.1.09 @ 12:12PM|#

To busy causing near riots on the comment threads with their "new" formatt?

R C Dean|10.1.09 @ 12:15PM|#

"We brought the global economy back from the brink," President Obama said at the close of the G-20 meeting last week.

Its Obama's world; we just pay taxes in it.

Query: Was he an arrogant megalomaniac before he took office, or is it a more recent development?

CaptainSmartass|10.1.09 @ 1:48PM|#

What other kind of person would run for office in the first place?

Neu Mejican|10.1.09 @ 6:19PM|#

If you want to be president, you are a megalomaniac.

If you think you are capable of being president you are arrogant.

So...yes.

Among the crop of arrogant megalomaniacs that ran, he was the one that seemed to have the most to offer.

Get over it.

Kant feel Pietzsche|10.2.09 @ 12:49AM|#

As a matter of fact, there was a psychiatrist who did a forensic diagnosis of BHO during the campaign based on language, speech patterns, and body language. Guess what his diagnosis was?

I'll see if I can relocate the link.

Kant feel Pietzsche|10.2.09 @ 12:53AM|#

Or.....I can just go fuck myself for falling into your sarcasm tar pit RC...damn!

Christina Romer|10.1.09 @ 12:17PM|#

"In light of the shifting baseline, it is impossible to hold the administration accountable for whether its policies are achieving their intended effects."

Pretty slick, huh?

|10.1.09 @ 12:17PM|#

Unemployment claims rose to 551,000 the week of Sept 22.

This must mean the stimulus is working beyond the wildest dreams of Joe Biden!

Naga Sadow|10.1.09 @ 12:20PM|#

Oh yeah? Well he must have saved at least eleventy billion jobs already.

|10.1.09 @ 12:19PM|#

Obama said that? He is so full of shit.

Xeones|10.1.09 @ 12:29PM|#

Shut the fuck up, Barack Obama.

|10.1.09 @ 12:30PM|#

BT, John - congratulations for landing that gig at Fox Business News. Unfortunately I don't get that with my basic plan, so see ya in Youtube!

Slutmonkey|10.1.09 @ 12:41PM|#

This is so transparent and lame. Yet somehow Obama makes it sound great to the masses. The 10% what you say, 90% how you say it is a cruel law of physics.

Birther|10.1.09 @ 12:45PM|#

Hey look, two aliens posing together!!

mark|10.1.09 @ 12:57PM|#

Two more interesting facts about the new Reason:
1) Clicking "hit & run" at the top takes you back to reason.com, rather than the blog.
2) John Stossel's story has its own comments section, so now you have to read TWO sets of comments! Don't you just love upgrades?

jtuf|10.1.09 @ 1:03PM|#

It's difficult to document how Obama saved the global economy. He made the planet spin in reverse to turn time backwards and undo the evil of fat cats.

|10.1.09 @ 1:15PM|#

There are a few kinks to solve before this new format works, for instance:

The link above for Hit + Run takes you to the main page, instead of the blog. The comments counter is not updating. There is no preview, which only a few of us use anyway, but it's still nifty.

Jerk|10.1.09 @ 1:31PM|#

I would give up preview, H&R link, and all HTML tag functions IF PEOPLE WOULD STOP NAMING ALL THE SAME FUCKING BUGS OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

tekende|10.1.09 @ 2:06PM|#

Ain't gonna happen. We libertarians love to complain.

Kevin|10.1.09 @ 1:22PM|#

I commented on the story itself, but that comment isn't showing up here. Thought it was lost in cyberspace for a minute. Those comments need to be merged with these, IMO.

Warren|10.1.09 @ 1:29PM|#

Like I said before Stossel. Now that you're at FOX you can't bash Obama man and be anything other than another frothing at the mouth attack dog.

Drugs and immigration, stick to those or your just a puppet.

|10.1.09 @ 3:44PM|#

Re: Warren,

Stossel has not attacked Obama at all when he was in ABC, and there is no reason why he would start now - Fox most likely expects him to be the same he was in 20/20: a critic of big government, no matter who's president. I look forward to see him in Youtube (because I cannot afford to sign on to Fox Business :-P )

underzog|10.1.09 @ 1:37PM|#

"President Obama said at the close of the G-20 meeting last week. "(B)ecause of the bold and coordinated action that we took, millions of jobs have been saved or created; the decline in output has been stopped; financial markets have come back to life"

"Life has become gayer, comrades.
Life has become more joyous."

Josef Stalin remarking on how much better life is after the terror famine and the bloody purges.

Barack Obama|10.1.09 @ 2:07PM|#

Since I took office, the Earth has not been hit by an asteroid and there have been no volcanoes in downtown Manhattan. See what a good job I'm doing.

Barak Obama|10.1.09 @ 2:34PM|#

Also, the sun did not go supernova and burn the earth to a cinder!

Am I awesome or what?

|10.1.09 @ 3:50PM|#

If I hadn't scratched my as on January 20th we would have entered a downturn that makes the depression look like a boom.

Neu Mejican|10.1.09 @ 6:26PM|#

So most of the experts I have heard discuss this issue generally agree that coordinated action from various governments around the world have mitigated the effects of the crisis.

Why are they wrong again?

I mean, governments are big players in the world economy. They can impact it by doing stuff, it seems.

Are people claiming otherwise?

Neu Mejican|10.1.09 @ 6:27PM|#

All functions (including "remember my name, email, and website) should be OPT IN, not OPT OUT.

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