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Best of the Web Today: Bad-Faith Journalism

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By James Taranto - Jan. 04 (Opinion) - It's not as eagerly awaited as Time's "Man of the Year" was back when people paid attention to Time, but PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year" nonetheless manages to generate a lot of chatter, aimed as it is at those who chatter for a living. This year almost all of the chatter was negative, as the St. Petersburg Times's self-styled "fact checking" operation, which usually leans left, tacked to the right, naming as its "Lie" the claim that "Republicans voted to end Medicare." The reference is to Rep. Paul Ryan's reform proposal, which passed the GOP-controlled House as part of a budget resolution before being rejected by the Democratic Senate.

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The GOP's Payroll Tax Fiasco

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By WSJ Editorial Board - Dec. 21 (Opinion) - GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell famously said a year ago that his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure that President Obama would not be re-elected. Given how he and House Speaker John Boehner have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest. The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play. Republicans have also achieved the small miracle of letting Mr. Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter, although he's spent most of his Presidency promoting tax increases and he would hit the economy with one of the largest tax increases ever in 2013. This should be impossible.

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Tax Rates, Inequality and the 1%

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By Alan Reynolds - Dec. 06 (Opinion) - Those who obsess over income shares should welcome stock market crashes and deep recessions because such calamities invariably reduce 'inequality.'

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The Apologies of Zuckerberg: A Retrospective

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By Liz Gannes - Nov. 29 (News Analysis) - At this point, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s pattern on privacy is clear. Launch new stuff that pushes the boundaries of what people consider comfortable. Apologize and assure users that they control their information, but rarely pull back entirely, and

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German Retail Sales Rise

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - Nov. 28 (News Report) - German retail sales, often a volatile indicator, rose unexpectedly in October, adding to a recent run of positive German data and indicating that consumption in Europe's largest economy remains reassuring.

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If Only Obama Had Been This Guy

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr - Nov. 23 (Opinion) - The good news is that growing economies can afford a great deal of government, if not quite as much as the Europeans and the U.S. have promised themselves. The bad news is that "policy error" are the saddest words in the language. These words, starting in the 1960s, came to dominate serious post mortems on the Great Depression of the 1930s, which blighted so many lives. Which brings us to President Obama. Has a president ever arrived freer to choose his own course, to devise his own response to the economic crisis that greeted him in office? Candidate Obama landed with no explicit ideological commitments (at least that he cared to share). He was an icon of something else altogether, and his followers were ready to follow wherever he led.

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Thousands Move Accounts on 'Bank Transfer Day'

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Nov. 06 (News) - Thousands Move Accounts on 'Bank Transfer Day' Wall Street Journal Thousands of people flooded into credit unions and small banks over the weekend as part of "Bank Transfer Day," an effort to prod depositors to abandon giant banks. But at least some of the big banks won't mind losing those customers. ... Credit unions see a boost in new accounts Statesman Journal On 'Bank Transfer Day,' Peninsula credit unions see opportunity to court new ... Peninsula Press On 'Bank Transfer Day,' Peninsula credit unions see opportunity to court new ... San Francisco Chronicle (blog) NewsOK.com Patch.com all 1,596 news ...

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What If Government Were More Like an iPod?

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Scott Adams - Nov. 05 (Opinion) - If Congress had a 9% approval rating while George Washington was still alive, he would have shoved his wooden dentures in his mouth, assembled a militia and marched on the Capitol. The nation's founders weren't big fans of dysfunctional governments. I'll bet we could solve our energy problem by connecting a generator to John Adams's corpse, which I assume is spinning in its grave.

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BofA Retreats On Debit Fee, Citing Uproar

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Dan Fitzpatrick, Robin Sidel - Nov. 01 (News Report) - Bank of America is dropping its plan to charge customers $5 a month for making purchases with their debit cards, a person familiar with the situation said. The move follows similar actions by rivals Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan.

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What Percent Are You?

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Phil Izzo - Oct. 25 (Special Report) - The Occupy Wall Street movement seeks to speak for the bottom 99% of the population by income, which includes pretty much everyone who makes less than $500,000 a year. According to the protesters’ unofficial website, “Occupy Wall Street” is a leaderless movement of people from many different backgrounds. “The one thing we all have in common is that we are the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%,” the website says. A related site called We Are the 99% records stories from people around the country. The calculator above shows where your income stands on the wide range of the 99%. An annual salary above $506,000 puts you in the top 1%, while you need to make less than $2,500 a year to be in the bottom 1%. Where do you stand?

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Coal India Chairman: All Workers on Strike

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Oct. 08 () - Coal India Ltd.'s workers have struck work Monday demanding a higher annual bonus payout, the chairman of the world's largest coal producer by volume said. The strike will result in a loss of 1.0 million metric tons ...Coal India soars in morning trade on inclusion in NiftyNDTV.comCoal India workers' union calls for strikeIndia Infoline.comGovernment to pull up Coal India for missing production targetsEconomic TimesMoneycontrol.comall 17 news articles »

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Democrats Propose 5% Job Killing Surtax on Millionaires

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:00:51 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Oct. 05 (News) - Senate Democrats proposed a 5% job killing surtax on people earning more than $1 million a year to pay for the $447 billion cost of Obama's 'so-called' job-creation bill, in a move designed to shore up Democratic support for the measure.

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Obama Calls for New Taxes on Wealthy

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By John D. McKinnon, Jared Favole, Damian Paletta - Sep. 20 (News Report) - Obama called for $1.5 trillion in new taxes to help lower the nation's deficit, saying tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires in the last decade helped add to the country's massive debts.

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Obama's Bid to Spur Growth

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Carol E. Lee, Naftali Bendavid - Sep. 09 (News Report) - The president called on Congress to pass a $447 billion package of spending initiatives and tax cuts to boost growth, in what might be the White House's last chance to change its political fortunes before the 2012 campaign kicks into high gear.

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U.S. Sees 'Credible' 9/11 Terror Threat

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Sep. 09 (News Report) - The U.S. has received specific and "credible" intelligence that al Qaeda militants in Pakistan may be pursuing a plot to carry out car or truck bombings in Washington and New York City, timed with the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said.

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In Africa, U.S. Watches China's Rise

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Peter Wonacott - Sep. 02 (News Report) - China is expanding its economic and political ties with countries across Africa, resulting in a rapid rise in influence here that has sparked concern from the U.S. government

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A Tangled Family Tree

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Sep. 01 (News) -

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Justice Department Sues to Block AT&T's Takeover of T-Mobile

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Thomas Catan, Brent Kendall - Aug. 31 (News Report) - The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday sued to block AT&T Inc.'s proposed $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile USA, saying the combination of the second- and fourth-largest U.S. cellphone companies would hurt competition and likely raise prices. The antitrust challenge comes shortly after the Obama administration also blocked Nasdaq OMX Group's proposed offer for NYSE Euronext and shows its desire to put new teeth into antitrust enforcement after what it says was lax enforcement under the previous administration.

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Party Ends at For-Profit Schools

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Melissa Korn - Aug. 23 (News Report) - New-student enrollments at for-profit colleges are plunging—in some cases by more than 45%—as schools pull back on aggressive recruiting practices and more would-be students question the student debt involved.

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Repressing the Internet, Western-Style

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Evgeny Morozov - Aug. 13 (News Analysis) - As politicians call for more online controls after London and Norway, authoritarian states are watching, says Evgeny Morozov.

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Globalization Has Role In This Double Whammy

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Simon Nixon - Aug. 10 (Opinion) - On the face of it, there's not much to link the London riots and the latest gyrations in global markets. The wave of violence and looting that has spread across the U.K. over the past few days has been mass criminality not a protest movement. And the global stock market rout was triggered by concerns over the euro zone, U.S. government debt and the global recovery rather than anything specific to the U.K. Indeed, the markets have singled out the U.K. as a haven, its debt now cheaper to insure than that of Germany. Even so, there's a link between the two phenomena—and it is an unsettling one. Both reflect the challenges of globalization. The creation of a rules-based multi-lateral trading system has been one of the greatest triumphs of the past 65 years. But the crash and the riots are evidence of the pressure this system is coming under from above and below.

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Bill Gates: Was the $5 Billion Worth It?

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By JASON L. RILEY, Bill Gates - Jul. 24 (Editorial) - A decade into his record-breaking education philanthropy, Bill Gates talks teachers, charters—and regrets. 'It's hard to improve public education—that's clear. As Warren Buffett would say, if you're picking stocks, you wouldn't pick this one." Ten years into his record-breaking philanthropic push for school reform, Bill Gates is sober—and willing to admit some missteps. "It's been about a decade of learning," says the Microsoft co-founder whose Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is now the nation's richest charity. Its $34 billion in assets is more than the next three largest foundations (Ford, Getty and Robert Wood Johnson) combined, and in 2009 it handed out $3 billion, or $2 billion more than any other donor. Since 2000, the foundation has poured some $5 billion into education grants and scholarships. Seated in his office at the new Gates Foundation headquarters located hard by the Emerald City's iconic Space Needle, Mr. Gates says that education isn't only a civil-rights issue but also "an equity issue and an economic issue. . . . It's so primary. In inner-city, low-income communities of color, there's such a high correlation in terms of educational quality and success."

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Hacking Testimony Is Disputed

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Cassell Bryan Low, Paul Sonne, Steve Stecklow - Jul. 22 (News Report) - Two former executives broke ranks with News Corp. for the first time on Thursday over whether James Murdoch knew in 2008 that the phone-hacking scandal at the company's now-defunct U.K. tabloid likely involved more than just one rogue reporter, as the company had long maintained.

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Big Deficit Deal or Not, Obama Wins - Wall Street Journal

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Jul. 11 (Opinion) - CBC.caBig Deficit Deal or Not, Obama WinsWall Street JournalPresident Barack Obama declared again Monday that he was seeking a really big deficit-cutting deal. In fact, he has powerful reasons to want one—as well as some ability to turn a failure to get one to his advantage. ...Obama, Congress haggle over debt dealMarketWatchDebt talks: Boehner says spending cuts alone reflect 'balance' Obama seeksLos Angeles TimesObama, Republicans back behind closed doorsUSA TodayFinancial Times -Bloomberg -San Francisco Chronicleall 4,486 news articles »

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In Bair's Last Meeting, FDIC Allows for Pay Clawbacks

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Alan Zibel - Jul. 06 (News) - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., in Chairman Sheila Bair's last meeting at the helm, on Wednesday approved rules allowing the government to recover compensation from executives who cause a financial firm to collapse.

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