« 'The Horror' of NPR's Economic Reporting
Glenn Beck a Ratings Failure as Well as a Moral Failure »

Do 'Economists Say' Herbert Hoover Was Right? Really?

10/24/2008 by Jim Naureckas

Bill Scher of the Campaign for America's Future has some strong media criticism on AlterNet (10/23/08), focusing on an L.A. Times piece by Stephen Braun (10/23/08) that claims, as the headline says, "Obama and McCain in Denial About Deficits, Economists Say."

"The article repeatedly assumes budget deficits as unequivocally bad," Scher notes, even though "many economists support deficit spending in response to economic recessions." This deficit spending can take the form of new programs, tax cuts or a combination of the two--exactly the kind of "ambitious tax and spending plans" that Braun insists "the nation's economic crisis will take a heavy toll on."

The idea that the only respectable response to an economic slowdown is an austerity program has been dubbed "neo-Hooverism"--and it's remarkably popular in the punditocracy.

Posted in Economy, Election | Permalink | Trackback | Share

This entry was posted on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 12:40 pm and is filed under Economy, Election. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Do 'Economists Say' Herbert Hoover Was Right? Really?”

  1. Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting » Blog Archive » AP: Obama Misleads by Not Promising Austerity Says:
    October 31st, 2008 at 10:13 am

    [...] does its usual sad job trying to fact-check candidate statements--this time working a hefty dose of neo-Hooverism into the mix.< !--preview-break-- [...]

  2. Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting » Blog Archive » Ken Walsh vs. the Mystery Van Says:
    November 11th, 2008 at 9:53 am

    [...] Award-winning U.S. News & World Report reporter Kenneth Walsh (11/10/08) joins in the media chorus urging Barack Obama and the Democrats to move to the right--for their own good, of course: The initial indications are that Obama will start in the center….  One reason, Democratic advisers say, is that so many new members of Congress are centrists that the party won't be able to hold its majority in 2010 if it lurches left with meddlesome social programs and vast new spending schemes. [...]

  3. FAIR Blog » Blog Archive » The Election Lesson: Hoover Was Right! Says:
    November 6th, 2009 at 1:41 pm

    [...] spending" and "ambitious" or "far-reaching" government proposals is a another example of the neo-Hooverism that corporate reporters seem to instinctively subscribe to. In reality, spending money is one of [...]

  4. October 2008 « Questionable Content Says:
    September 25th, 2010 at 10:25 am

    [...] http://www.fair.org/blog/2008/10/24/do-economists-say-herbert-hoover-was-right-really/ [...]

Leave a Reply