Have the Gray Lady’s inmates finally taken over the asylum? First we had the over-the-top “news” report on Joe Manchin’s decision to oppose massive climate-change spending in light of the new inflation reports. The NYT accused Manchin of turning his back on the entire planet for cash:
Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, who took more campaign cash from the oil and gas industry than any other senator, and who became a millionaire from his family coal business, independently blew up the Democratic Party’s legislative plans to fight climate change. The swing Democratic vote in an evenly divided Senate, Mr. Manchin led his party through months of tortured negotiations that collapsed on Thursday night, a yearlong wild goose chase that produced nothing as the Earth warms to dangerous levels.
That was a news report on the climate, mind you. So is this NYT report on the political and economic climate, wherein the Paper of Record manages to accuse Republicans of potentially stoking inflation by their pouncing and seizing:
The report itself is somewhat more rational in tone, although it makes the argument that Republican campaign ads could be both inflationary and recessionary. That’s still a rather absurd framing of the problem. Let’s start with the idea that Republican campaign ads could create more inflation via a wage-price spiral:
Some economists have expressed concern that the political debate could actually make it harder for the central bank to orchestrate a so-called soft landing — in which it cools the economy without causing a recession — if the proliferation of campaign ads fan fears of inflation.
If inflation concerns become even more heightened and consumers begin expecting prices to keep rising, that could compel workers to ask their bosses for bigger raises in anticipation of goods and services becoming more costly. Those employers could then raise the costs of the goods and services they sell in order to cover their higher labor costs.
Once again, let’s go to the charts on CPI inflation:
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CPI inflation has been raging for 15 straight months; it’s been over 6% for nine months; it’s been at or over 8% for five months. Are we really to believe that workers will only notice the erosion of their buying power by seeing Republican ads “pouncing” on these economic indicators? Does anyone believe that, absent these ads, workers would not already be demanding higher raises from their employers to protect as much of that buying power as possible?
Workers don’t need a GOP political ad to notice the erosion of their buying power and shortages of goods at the grocery stores. Republicans aren’t talking about it to unveil it as a secret, either. They’re running ads about it because they know voters will recognize it — and because voters are already making clear that inflation and the economy is their highest priority by far in the midterms.
What about GOP campaigning on inflation being a risk for recession? This might be on slightly more solid ground, especially to the extent that campaign ads have a dampening effect on consumer spending. However, it’s not just the campaign ads that the NYT pre-emptively blames:
The notion that the United States could essentially talk itself into a recession is not new. As recently as 2019, before the pandemic, markets were roiled by former President Donald J. Trump’s trade war with China and consumer sentiment started to dip. Mr. Trump accused his critics and the media of “doing everything they can to crash the economy because they think that will be bad for me and my re-election.”
Mr. Furman pointed out that economic sentiment can often diverge along party lines depending on what party is in power, but that it is uncertain to what extent those feelings will influence hiring and investment plans. …
Beyond campaign ads, the sense of economic doom is being amplified by right-leaning media outlets, which consistently tie inflation to Mr. Biden’s policies.
While I’m certain that the NYT would prefer that Republicans simply shut up about the economy in 2022, that’s an absurd point. Of course Biden’s political opponents will point out the outcome of Biden’s economic and energy policies. There is nothing illegitimate in doing so — and again, as voters tell pollsters over and over again, the economy and Biden’s policies relating to it are their top issue. It would be political malpractice of the highest order not to debate those in an election.
And again, Republican ads and conservative commentary don’t cause recessions any more than Democratic ads and liberal commentary cause it in Republican administrations. The impact of Federal Reserve monetary policies, high prices themselves, energy costs and shortages, and other natural market conditions will have much more impact on consumer spending than a few weeks of political ads. It’s insulting and certainly condescending to assume that voters aren’t paying attention to all of those market signals already, especially — again — since they tell pollsters over and over again that inflation and the economy are already by far and away their biggest concerns in this election.
This is just a stupid attempt to transfer blame for the wreckage of Joe Biden’s policies to the people who opposed them in the first place. It’s an embarrassing attempt at narrative journalism and media water-carrying for the current leadership clique, and yet another marker on the long decline of media credibility in the US.
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