Business Coverage

For all of its shortcomings and limitations, one very useful benefit of Twitter is that it has exposed the breathtaking ignorance of so many supposedly well-educated journalists. A recent stunning example involves April Ryan, who, after the first two pages of Donald Trump's 2005 federal tax return were illegally revealed Tuesday on MSNBC, tweeted: "So in 2005 @POTUS was not a Billionaire,"…

Wall Street has been brimming with optimism since President Donald Trump’s election, but Main Street’s optimism soared as well. Some say the new GOP health insurance bill may keep that going.CNBC reporter Kate Rogers said that “Main Street’s outlook post-election is still holding at historically high levels according to the National Federation of Independent Business.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to spend $1.4 billion of New York's resources to solve the persistent problem of poverty in central Brooklyn. If he wins legislative approval, Cuomo, a Democrat, intends to spend the money on affordable housing, job training, anti-violence programs, recreational space, even obesity. Some cynics suggest the proposal is targeted at boosting Cuomo's presidential prospects in…

While financial news networks, companies and economists linked optimism over President Donald Trump’s proposed economic policies to the strong jobs report, only one of three broadcast networks — CBS — made that connection. On March 10, The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced 235,000 new jobs were added in February — the first month entirely under the new president’s watch. The report shot past…

In a dispatch accusing the Trump administration of hypocrisy in expressing pleasure over Friday's jobs report from the government's Bureau of Labor Statistics, Associated Press reporters Jill Colvin and Christopher Rugaber, with additional assistance from Jonathan Lemire, either betrayed an amazing collective level of ignorance about what a households is, or were so blinded by the need to…

Prior to the Friday afternoon White House press briefing, CNN’s Wolf attempted to tamp down on the Trump administration’s positive vibes regarding the February jobs report, wondering if President Donald Trump is really able to “claim credit” for such a strong month. 

There is little doubt that the big economic news Wednesday was payroll and employee benefits giant ADP's estimate that the economy added 298,000 seasonally adjusted private-sector jobs in February. Over seven hours later, the New York Times did not have the news on its website's home page — or even at its "Business Day" business and financial news web page.

What everyone knew would happen as a result of Philadelphia's 1.5 cents-per-ounce soda tax began materializing on Wednesday, as Pepsi announced that it would lay off roughly 20 percent of its workforce there over the next several months. Coverage at both Philly.com and Associated Press allowed the city to engage in fantasy by claiming without meaningful challenge, or even clarification, that…

A week ago, the Columbus Dispatch reported that Wendy's, the fast-food chain, announced "plans to install self-ordering kiosks in 1,000 of its stores — about 16 percent of its locations — by the end of the year." Although company officials observed 18 months ago that such a move would be inevitable if the trend towards laws demanding far-above-market minimum wages continued, both J.D. Malone's…

In June, the City of Philadelphia, in what was hailed as a "historic moment for public health," passed a deliberately misnamed 1.5-cent per ounce "soda tax." What anyone with a lick of sense could have predicted would happen is happening, and the national press is mostly ignoring the tragic results.

On Tuesday morning's MSNBC Live, Louise Mensch, though she claims to be a conservative, put forth what I suspect will be the left's core economic argument if the economy improves under Donald Trump. That argument: The economy is "fantastic" already, and Trump will have had nothing to do with whatever economic improvements over what is already "fantastic" we might see.

UPDATE, Feb. 7: On Feb. 5, Jake Tapper tweeted that "if you're concerned about things being 'incomplete' maybe consider adding into your post Manchin on same show response to rule." I attempted to find that video, and could not. If it was so important, and in the interest of balance, one would hope it would be part of the CNN video at the web link cited below — and it's not. As Nicholas…

A January 24 item in the East Bay Times, which serves the San Francisco East Bay area, wondered: "What’s behind the spate of recent restaurant closures?" While it didn't ignore the problem, the article made only glancing references to current and planned increases in state and city minimum wages. Preliminary year-end statistics at the U.S. government's Bureau of Labor Statistics show that Bay…

Business people or companies who chose to endorse, donate or praise Donald Trump have been under attack from the left in recent months. Yet, the network news have failed to inform their viewers about it. The left took aim at L.L.Bean, Yuengling, New Balance and MyPillow for various forms of support  for President-Elect Donald Trump or for his proposed policies. Gay bars and other customers…