Comments for Newsweek's Pinata of Errors: Niall Ferguson's Trashing of Obama at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 10 out of 10 comments http://www.cepr.net Wed, 22 May 2013 12:46:50 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/newsweeks-pinata-of-errors-niall-fergusons-trashing-of-obama#comment-18408 There can't really be any doubt about Ferguson's desperate struggle to become the new Kissinger for McCain, can there? If you doubt it, please watch this particularly insane piece of kiss-arsery by Ferguson, delivered to the Brookings Institution in April 2008 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mli7OjrB3M - Jon Mon, 27 Aug 2012 23:28:57 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/newsweeks-pinata-of-errors-niall-fergusons-trashing-of-obama#comment-18315 If within 3 or 4 years 2.7 million people either were cured of disability or died or otherwise left the program, would you expect [i]zero[/i] people to join it? I don't think so. Reporting the number of people who join without also reporting those who leave is just a sophisticated form of dishonesty when the only thing that matters is the net change. Ferguson's phrasing strongly suggests there was a [i]net[/i] increase of 3.6 million due to some deliberate action by the government. A false and deliberately misleading impression, as you would expect from a political shill. - stringph Wed, 22 Aug 2012 01:13:04 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/newsweeks-pinata-of-errors-niall-fergusons-trashing-of-obama#comment-18312 The number reported was the additions, not the growth in the total number of people in the program. About 2.7 million people left the disability program from 2008-2011. http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/di_asr/2011/sect03a.html#table35 - AndrewDover Tue, 21 Aug 2012 17:37:47 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/newsweeks-pinata-of-errors-niall-fergusons-trashing-of-obama#comment-18305 @andrewdover, it's possible that his stat is correct. It's safe to assume a certain number of ss recipients died during that period of time. If that were the case, then niall's number could be right. In the absence of his methodology, or the stats for people who left ss system (died, cured), then that might be a valid stat. - Matthew Tue, 21 Aug 2012 13:01:11 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/newsweeks-pinata-of-errors-niall-fergusons-trashing-of-obama#comment-18304 Niall wrote: "Meanwhile, since 2008, a staggering 3.6 million Americans have been added to Social Security’s disability insurance program. This is one of many ways unemployment is being concealed." However, the facts don't support that claim: http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/di_asr/2011/sect01b.html#table3 "All Disabled Beneficiaries" Year Total (December) 2007 8,118,382 2011 9,803,581 (or 4.6% of resident 18-64 population.) Niall's 3.6 million addition would have resulted in 11.7 million. - AndrewDover Tue, 21 Aug 2012 11:53:42 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/newsweeks-pinata-of-errors-niall-fergusons-trashing-of-obama#comment-18303 the economy is going nowhere. obama promised much, produced little. but romney especially with his vp choice will only make a very bad economic situation worse. speaking of vp choices, wasn't it strange that mccain picked numbskull palin instead of romney? think old john may know something about mitt's taxes? when the moratorium on illegal offshore tax frauds was enacted, 30,000 tax felon millionaires got off scott free. pretty good deal, just pay the back taxes, interest & penalties, but no prison time because of their clout. not saying willard is a felon, but you cannot say he isn't either. maybe a federal employee with access might shed some light on this, after all the romney/ryan administration would be horrible news for a government employee. might as well go down swinging. - mel in oregon Tue, 21 Aug 2012 11:04:08 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/newsweeks-pinata-of-errors-niall-fergusons-trashing-of-obama#comment-18286 The claim of stimulus deniers is clear, that the associated spending simply does not and cannot create new net jobs. This is like claiming for cars designed to withstand a head-on collision of 30mph that were instead destroyed in a 70mph collision, they would have been destroyed in a 30mph collision as well. As long as only 30mph collisions are predicted in the face of 70mph actual collisions the deniers will continue to claim no design can withstand any collision. - Last Mover Tue, 21 Aug 2012 02:35:29 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/newsweeks-pinata-of-errors-niall-fergusons-trashing-of-obama#comment-18285 Silly old Brooks over at NYT is pushing his politics under the guide of economics once again. - Jerry Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:05:03 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/newsweeks-pinata-of-errors-niall-fergusons-trashing-of-obama#comment-18284 The electorate kicked out the Dems who failed to support a larger stimulus, and then got a bunch of do nothing Republicans in their place, who put a deliberate drag on any further progress on the job front. - David Mon, 20 Aug 2012 18:27:48 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/newsweeks-pinata-of-errors-niall-fergusons-trashing-of-obama#comment-18283 Unfortunately your point is lost in all of the current election back and forth. If you read the comments at the Daily Beast where this execrable diatribe sits, there seems to be two viewpoints: 1) Niall is wrong and therefor all is good with Obama. 2) Niall is right and therefor all Obama supporters should vote for Romney. There's not a ton of room left in this dialog who find Obama a failure but don't think the resolution is more to the right. That Obama failed not because of his "leftist" policies, but [b]lack[/b] of leftist policies (or at least, more leftist). Of course what I called "leftist" was at one time considered "centrist" - that's the sad thing. - Carl Weetabix Mon, 20 Aug 2012 17:29:02 +0100