New from the Free Market Project

Media Myths: Hit Job
Networks Emphasize Layoffs in a Year of 2 Million New Jobs
A little more than half of the network stories on employment in 2005 were bad news. Layoffs, outsourcing, cutbacks. While the nation experienced hardships from Hurricane Katrina�s devastation and the auto industry�s trials, the overall picture of U.S. employment was a very positive one. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.9 percent, while the country enjoyed the latest in a 31-month streak of job growth. But watching the evening news, you�d never know it, as the Free Market Project�s latest Media Myth reveals.

Commentary: Networks Do a Poor Job with Unemployment Coverage
When you look out your window, do you see soup lines? The networks sure did when they were reporting on employment in 2005. It�s time we demanded a new deal from journalists who take every opportunity to hype layoffs at the expense of millions of new jobs.

CNN Spends 2005 Telling People They�re Going Backwards
Broadcast journalists, especially on CNN, have been obsessed with the relationship between wages and inflation. Trouble is, they haven�t been informing the public accurately. They�ve declared inflation is �killing the middle class.� But when it comes to wages and inflation, the current pattern since 2001 follows the same as previous economic recoveries, a fact that was lost on CNN. A little context could end the scaremongering.

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly tracks the best and worst media coverage of business and economics. Readers are invited to submit suggestions or news tips to staff writer Ken Shepherd.
This week:  BusinessWeek on how outsourcing benefits the economy; Lou Dobbs takes erroneous outrage on the road; CNN on Hollywood stars vs. Wall Street execs.

Also from FMP:

Newscasts Overlook Ford�s Costly Severance Programs

CNN�s Dobbs Blames Free Trade, Non-Union Labor for Ford�s Woes

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Research, News & Commentary

Wages

Commentary: Detailing how minimum wage hikes actually increase the number of people employed below the minimum wage line, Alan Reynolds argues that �moralizing can easily substitute for economics among elitists who don�t really care how many more people they shove into the ranks of those paid less than some local or national minimum.�

Investing/Retirement

Analysis: �A person who spends $300 a month on the lottery could instead earn nearly half a million dollars in the stock market � $433,208 more than he would win playing the lottery,� say the authors of a new study on how �Lottery Taxes Divert Income from Retirement Savings.�

Government

Commentary: It�s time to repeal the �toilet mandate.� Highlighting an example of wasteful government regulation, Andrew Ferguson calls for the elimination of a federal regulation limiting toilet tank capacity to 1.6 gallons. It�s a vain attempt to promote water conservation, and new toilets designed to fit the standard often require several flushes to do the same job an ol� 3.5-gallon toilet did with one pull of the lever.

Commentary: Noting that the �Postal Rate Commission has not prohibited a rate increase� since the early 1970s, Americans for Tax Reform�s Grover Norquist suggests the U.S. Postal Service should look at cutting its size, not raising postal rates.

Health Care

Commentary: In the face of the double-whammy of the world�s most expensive health care system and a �rapidly aging society,� AEI�s Kevin Hassett argues ahead of President Bush�s Jan. 31 State of the Union Address that �It�s Time to Face Up to the U.S. Medicare Crisis.�

Commentary: Citing press accounts that President Bush will promote health savings accounts in his upcoming State of the Union, Cato�s �Daily Dispatch� blog offers brief analysis, linking back to previous studies Cato has done on health care reform.

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