{"id":13870,"date":"2014-10-11T00:27:27","date_gmt":"2014-10-11T07:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=13870"},"modified":"2014-10-11T00:27:27","modified_gmt":"2014-10-11T07:27:27","slug":"shhhh-its-a-secret-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/11\/shhhh-its-a-secret-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Shhhh! It’s a Secret!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everywhere you turn you hear bad news about the economy.  According to conventional wisdom, we are spending like there is no tomorrow and running up record budget deficits.  In the process, we arwe destroying the economy.  Is this true?  What\u2019s really going on?  Shhhh!  It\u2019s a secret!<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"1011Deficit\"<\/p>\n

What if they balanced the budget and nobody knew or cared?<\/p>\n

O.K., the federal budget hasn\u2019t actually been balanced. But the Congressional Budget Office has tallied up the totals<\/a> for fiscal 2014, which ran through the end of September, and reports that the deficit plunge of the past several years continues. You still hear politicians ranting about \u201ctrillion dollar deficits,\u201d but last year\u2019s deficit was less than half-a-trillion dollars \u2014 or, a more meaningful number, just 2.8 percent of G.D.P. \u2014 and it\u2019s still falling.<\/p>\n

So where are the ticker-tape parades? For that matter, where are the front-page news reports? After all, talk about the evils of deficits and the grave fiscal danger facing America dominated Washington for years. Shouldn\u2019t we be making a big deal of the fact that the alleged crisis is over?<\/p>\n

Well, we aren\u2019t, and once you understand why, you also understand what fiscal hysteria was really about.<\/p>\n

First, ordinary Americans aren\u2019t celebrating the deficit\u2019s decline because they don\u2019t know about it<\/strong>… [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/p>\n

Click thr4ough to read how Paul Krugman continues to explain how the media focuses on bad news and ignores good news.  Of course that’s true. If it bleeds, it leads<\/em>.  However, another dynamic is at work here., as Rachel Maddox explains.<\/font><\/p>\n