Writing about government economic reports is hard. Do the work

    Los Angeles Times Who are we to call an employment report “healthy”? The 235,000 added jobs might look “healthy,” but there’s plenty of information buried in the monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics report that could inform other interpretations. For example, if you look at “total nonfarm” figures in the February report, you see […]

Testy Copy Editor: Trump victory fuels confidence

Trump won. Consumer and small-business confidence surged. Now what? – Albuquerque Journal Correlation is not causation. Although the election result has been “credited” with improving some measures of the economy, there is no objective proof of it. The headline states flatly that Donald Trump’s election was what caused increases in “confidence.” This story exacerbates the […]

When business journalists use bad quotes

Wall Street is throwing the most money at U.S. energy companies since at least 2000 amid growing confidence that the industry is emerging from the worst downturn in a generation. – Bloomberg Don’t get confused. Contrary to popular opinion (and many careless business writers), “Wall Street” usually doesn’t throw money at companies at all.  The […]

When the name of a boat is not a business news story

“Turns out overdraft fees are still big moneymakers for some banks. So much so that a former chief executive of a midsize bank named his boat after the fee.” – Washington Post “Among the juicy details included in a new consumer advocacy lawsuit filed Thursday was this one: The former CEO of a Midwest bank actually […]