Washington Post: Fox on 15th Street?

     On first glance it might seem that Brad Delong exaggerates.

      "If you seek to know why the world would be a better place if the Washington Post were to shut down its presses immediately, look around you."

     http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2012/05/dean-baker-reads-the-washington-post-so-we-dont-have-to-why-oh-why-cant-we-have-a-better-press-corps-department.html#comments

      However: Dean's title asks "How Can an Election Result be "Shrill?" Dean explains how:

       "If the Washington Post doesn't like it. That would explain the lead sentence of its lead front page story on the elections in France and Greece on Sunday:

     "The shrill anti-incumbent message that has emerged from a pair of European elections carries a threat to the U.S. economic recovery and a political warning for President Obama, whose reelection prospects could hinge on whether the economy can improve."

    As Baker points out: "Other newspapers might leave such editorializing for the opinion pages, but not Fox on 15th Street."

    http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/how-can-an-election-result-be-qshrillq

    That's a great point. I mean the Wall Street Journal does. I haven't read the WPO much-I do of course like Ezra Klein's Wonk Blog, but I thought the WPO was supposed to be part of the liberal media? Is it under new ownership? It's sounding like the Washington Times. Do the Reverend Sun Moon buy WPO out?

      Dean then makes some great economic points:

      "The substance in this statement is also not especially accurate. U.S. exports to Europe are only about 2 percent of U.S. GDP. This means that even a sharp drop in exports (e.g. 10 percent) would only imply a reduction in growth of around 0.2 percentage points. That is unlikely to make much of a difference in U.S. growth."

     "If Europe's turmoil leads to more uncertainty in financial markets (short of a full-fledged meltdown), it could actually benefit the United States. Interest rates in the United States plummeted following the spike in interest rates on Spanish and Italian debt last summer. The same would likely happen again. This would make it cheaper for people to refinance mortgages and engage in other types of borrowing."

     In the short term noting that comes out of the elections will likely hurt us. Really this may be a very good thing even for the euro itself as Krugman argues. With France being a much less compliant partner it may actually strengthen the eurozone.

     Baker finishes off by pointing out that:

     "Actually, Europe is not on a path to recovery. It is on a path to recession because of the austerity being imposed by the European Central Bank and the IMF. If this austerity is reversed and Europe starts growing again that would help the U.S. economy."