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Beat the Press: Editorialists Gone Wild (12/3/07) by Dean Baker
"If anyone still thought that the Washington Post editorial board could discuss trade in a rational manner"—particularly in regard to Mexico—Dean's analysis of a December 3 editorial has "proved them wrong." The paper makes a dubious case for the "positive effects" of NAFTA on the U.S. and then asserts that "the impact of NAFTA seems to have been both larger and more positive in Mexico." But a quick look at the IMF's figures has Baker asking "how on Earth does the Post get that Mexico's GDP quadrupled [over the last decade] when it actually only grew by 83* percent?"Well, they may have taken the growth in nominal GDP. If we don't adjust for inflation then we can conclude that Mexico's GDP quadrupled over the last 20 years. Of course, no reasonable person would ever assess growth without first adjusting for inflation since it has no meaning. If we don't adjust for inflation, Zimbabwe's economy, wracked by hyperinflation of several thousand percent annually, is the fastest growing economy on the planet. If the Post editorial writers use a consistent measure, we can expect to see warm praise for Zimbabwe's extraordinary growth on the editorial pages in the near future.
See also Extra!: NAFTA's Hung Jury: After Ten Years, an Honest Verdict Is Hard to Find (5–6/04) by Roger Bybee
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