Hewittnomics

The market’s tanking. Why? Most folks would say it’s because the jobs report confirms that the economy’s tanking. As the WSJ’s econ blog quotes a bunch of economists and market analysts:

This data shows an economy slowing sharply — the first quarter of 2008 is shaping up as a negative quarter for GDP growth — and the risk of recession is rising sharply. ...

December’s bleak jobs report represents the siren call that this business cycle is just about over. We’re about to tilt over to the other side of the economic curve and begin the downswing. The only real question now is whether the economy will contract for one or two quarters. ...

2007’s job gain was only about 60% of 2006’s job growth. And job creation has been even slower in more recent months. Some, but not all, of this softness has been due to the decline in housing and the turmoil in the financial markets. More important, the pace of job creation over the past year will be revised down when benchmark revisions are made in February

But Hugh Hewitt apparently wants us to think that the market’s tanking because his man Mitt Romney lost the Iowa caucus last night. here at PB.com, we’re not buying this one anymore than we bought Hugh’s argument that harriet Miers was qualified to be on the Supreme Court.

Posted on Friday, January 04 2008 | Permalink

Happy New Year from Slovakia!

Funny how I agree with your critique against Hugh about Mitt (dead meat), yet disagree on Harriet—she was CERTAINLY qualified to be seated, meaning she met all legal requirements. That’s the legal, real definition of qualified, isn’t it?

Endlessly repeating your false claim of not being qualified, probably a mere rhetorical exaggeration, begins to weaken your own authority.  You never even examine her presumed votes on any opinions made by the SC!

Many Huck voters, I’m sure, are tired of Dem AND Rep “elites” trying to tell them what’s best.

On the WSJ slowdown, Bill Quick says some models show a 100% chance of a recession.  I don’t quite buy it—but SARBOX is probably making Wall Street itself a lot more vulnerable as corporations cease any NY growth. (I thought of you reading him.)

As long as the dollar keeps dropping, exports should keep picking up so “tanking” becomes an exaggeration of slowing down.

(Also you have the best spam filter word to type generator.  Thanks for a great blog.)

Posted by Tom Grey  on  01/04  at  10:43 PM

Hewitt is, unfortunately, stuck in a perpetual circular logic loop:  Any good economic news proves the market’s faith in Bush/Romney; any bad economic news proves the market’s fear of Pelosi/Reid/Huckabee.

At least Hewitt’s indulgence of this silliness is relatively rare.  Much more striking is Larry Kudlow, who was writing about two columns a month on NRO saying the same thing.

Ultimately, the transparent intellectual dishonesty (not to mention laziness) in both Kudlow’s and Hewitt’s discussion on these issues tells us a lot about how to view their “analyses” in general—for Hewitt and Kudlow, the goal is not to discover and tell the truth, but rather simply to advance their pre-determined political favorites.

Posted by  on  01/06  at  01:44 PM
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