Don’t Get Suckered Into The “Austerity” Argument

“Recovery Shows a Soft Spot,” declared a banner headline of a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal. “Soft spot” pretty much sums up the Journal’s explanation for a reported 0.1% contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Viewing things from further west on 8th Avenue and 41st Street, The New York Times spun the same story differently, toward its chronic, Krugman-esque view of trickle-down government. The Times encapsulated the tale of a 0.1% GDP decline in a front-page headline, declaring that “Growth Halted in 4th Quarter on U.S. Cuts.”

Which angle should you trust? How about neither! Instead, let’s take our own look behind the curtain…

U.S. cuts? Huh? What cuts? Has Congress cut spending and not told anyone? Are fewer people receiving lower entitlement payouts? Do we have fewer people on Social Security? Fewer on food stamps? Less Medicare? Are government agencies laying off personnel down in Washington? Are we shutting off military aid to, say, Egypt?

Cuts? What is The New York Times talking about? Has U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron secretly been advising President Obama and setting U.S. spending policy? Nope.

Read More at The Daily Reckoning . By Byron King.

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About F. Peter Brown

Editor at the Sound Money Institute and Associate Editor at the Western Center for Journalism. www.fpeterbrown.com

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The Sound Money Institute is and educational organization dedicated to the stability and soundness of the United States Dollar. Faced with unprecedented pressure to spend beyond its means the United States Government has pressured the Federal Reserve Bank to monetize the debt or in other words they are printing currency to fund deficit spending by the US Treasury.

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