by Calculated Risk on 10/31/2005 01:40:00 AM

My Angry Bear post is up: GDP and Housing.

Dr. Thoma excerpts Krugman's Ending the Fraudulence. I would like to echo Dr. Thoma's comments on the media.

Journalists need to ... ask themselves how to do a better job of presenting objective analysis on economic matters rather than the opinions of pundits from both sides. That’s a lot harder than grabbing the usual talking heads who say the usual things, it will require digging in and doing research, seeking out and talking to the real experts in the field, and understanding the issues before reporting on them.

Of course the media tries to be "fair" and report both sides. When one side is spouting nonsense, reporting both sides equally is absurd. Dr. Krugman once joked that if President Bush said that the Earth was flat, the headlines of news articles would read, "Opinions Differ on Shape of the Earth."

And finally, I have suggested that the UK's current economic problems might be an example of what will happen in the US, after the housing market slows, since the BoE started raising rates sooner than the FED. Australia is another country to watch: Home sales stall on slowdown

SALES of new homes and units plummeted 16 per cent in September with no sight of a recovery in the housing market, figures released today show.

The sale of new houses fell by 20 per cent while the sale of multi-units rose 9.4 per cent over the month, the Housing Industry Association (HIA) said.

New home sales are less than half their level two years ago before the property market had started to cool with higher interest rates.

Australia's peak building industry body said there was no sight of recovery in housing demand.

Dilbert (Scott Adams) has started blogging: Enjoy!