Yet more evidence of the pernicious nature of leftward media bias is this little headline-- Productivity slows to a standstill
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON - The productivity of American workers slowed to a standstill in the summer while wage pressures were rising at the fastest clip in more than two decades, a combination likely to raise inflation concerns at the Federal Reserve.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, showed no change in the July-September quarter while labor costs rose by 3.8 percent. For the past year, labor costs are up by 5.3 percent, the fastest increase since 1982. [...]
Except.
Productivity is a meaure of how much stuff gets done in an hour. The fact that there was no increase over last quarter DOES NOT MEAN THAT PRODUCTION HAS STOPPED, despite the implication of the headline. Productivity rate gains and losses are cyclical, and over the last ten years have generally fluctuated in a window of zero to five percent--up and down, up and down. Here's the chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows the phenomenon.
The fact that the rate of productivity did not increase from one quarter to the next is, in and of itself, not remarkable.
Second of all, we continue to hear from some quarters about how low wages are and how a certain political party will make sure wages go up. Well, according to the story, labor costs (which includes wages) is up. Good? NO! BAAAADDDD!!
I took a micro- and a macroeconomics class in college, and generally understand the way markets and the economy work, but I'm obviously not an expert in this stuff. But even still, I can see that the intent of this story--and especially its misleading headline--has very little to do with reporting routine economic data, and much more about looking at everything through a prism of tearing down the current Administration. NO economic news--no matter how good, no matter how innocuous, seems to be fed through a screen to gather as much chaff together and throw away as much wheat as possible.
Why?
I'm not sure, but I think back a few years ago to the last election when so much of the old-line media took a black eye for its thinly-disguised loyalty to the Left. The refrain from many on the Right was, "Look, it's not that you guys are biased--we KNOW you are--at least be honest about it." I think this was said by many with the hope that through shame and denigration, the media would decide that maybe it had NOT been dispassionate enough, and begin to make efforts to be more careful, more cognizant of the way in which stories are framed, and actually work toward being as unbiased in fact as they always proclaimed themselves to be in word.
What happened, however, is that the media took an unexpected tack of becoming nakedly partisan, for the most part dropping any pretense of reason or logic and settling comfortably in the role of being a petty, partisan organ. (Corroborating story here.)
Thankfully, they managed to secure their irrelevancy several years before such a decision would have a greater impact.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at November 2, 2006 09:32 AMHey, I don't know about everyone else, but my productivity pretty much was zero or maybe a little negative. Maybe I am the reason for the collapse of the American economy.
Or it could be my guitar teacher who, based on the progress I am making, has not been very productive either.
Posted by: Larry Anderson at November 2, 2006 10:47 AMAt least your wages continue to rise, right?
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at November 2, 2006 11:02 AM