Personal Finance

Just in time for Thanksgiving, BMI Director Dan Gainor stopped by ‘Fox and Friends' to remind everyone that the economy is not as bad as people think, and that despite what the media said about your Thanksgiving dinner, it wasn't that bad. "If you look at the inflation-adjusted number, it [Thanksgiving dinner] is actually 9 percent cheaper over the last 20 years," Gainor said…

*****Critical update at end of post: Yahoo switched articles inside the link about to be discussed!Was there a directive at the Associated Press on Friday for business writers to do their darnedest to bash the economy? After publishing a truly disgraceful column Saturday practically predicting a depression as a result of the current credit crunch, the AP offered readers an article about the…

*****Update at end of post includes detailed response to unhappy e-mail messages concerning this subject.As someone that has done a lot of economic writing and financial media analysis, I'm used to gloom and doom from journalists. However, Saturday's Associated Press article concerning the credit crunch and how it's impacting the mortgage market could be the worst example of economic and…

For years one of the great unanswered questions along Main and Wall streets has been why, in the midst of 24 consecutive quarters of uninterrupted growth, polls have regularly found Americans sour about the economy. On Tuesday, a battle between the New York Times liberal economics columnist Paul Krugman and WOR radio's Steve Malzberg offered a clue. In fact, after 16 minutes of sparring on…

The Anchoress, a three-time Weblog Awards finalist and 2007 Catholic Blog Awards Winner (congratulations!) in the Best Political/Social Commentary category (scroll down at link to see it), delivered a cold but necessary shower earlier this evening to those of us who are tempted to exaggerate or overstate the impact New Media is having on most Americans. I'll bet that a lot of us can relay similar…

Which prominent pundit has called Barack Obama a "sucker" and a "fool"?A. Rush LimbaughB. Ann CoulterC. Michelle MalkinD. Mark LevinE. Laura IngrahamJeopardy theme-music playing . . .

Someone needs to tell me why this news about discretionary income isn't as significant as I believe it is. But first, three warnings: 1. I'm not about to spend the $250 needed to read the full report from the Conference Board that backs the story (their "about" page is here). 2. I don't feel totally comfortable with how the statistic is measured -- "Households with discretionary income, as…

What could be more timely than a study about debt? With all the networks crying about oil prices and threats to the economy, consumers are feeling squeezed. Director of the Business & Media Institute, Dan Gainor appeared on the Fox Business Channel today to talk about the Culture & Media Institute and Business & Media Institute joint study, "DEBT Who'$ responsible?" That found…