The Audit

Lucky Duckies Waddle Onto the WSJ News Pages

The poor and lower middle class pay federal taxes, too

By Ryan Chittum   May 3, 2011 at 02:53 PM

The Wall Street Journal has a poor story today reporting that "High-Earning Households Pay Growing Share of Taxes." The paper's... More

Too Big to Fail: New Jersey Mall Edition

Chris Christie can’t let Xanadu go under; $400 million in corporate welfare

By Ryan Chittum   May 2, 2011 at 07:50 PM

What corporate interest won't Chris Christie subsidize with taxpayer dollars? The New Jersey governor, press favorite, and conservative hero is... More

WSJ Notes That Commodities Go Down, Too

By Ryan Chittum   May 2, 2011 at 12:11 PM

The business press is much more sensitive to signs of price increases than it is to signs of price decreases.... More

Audit Notes: Those Pricey Reporters, Business Press Critique, Wolff’s Idealism, etc.

By Dean Starkman   Apr 29, 2011 at 02:51 PM

--What's a story cost? Ken Doctor asks Clark Gilbert, CEO of the Deseret News's parent, who gives this breakdown:... More

What Washington Does All Day

HuffPo with a terrific story on the obscure interchange battle and its meaning

By Dean Starkman   Apr 29, 2011 at 11:55 AM

David Brooks says correctly that not enough Washington reporters break away from the pack and report on how the... More

When No One Cared About Moody’s and S&P’s Opinions

They operated on a journalism model, and no one listened

By Dean Starkman   Apr 28, 2011 at 02:24 PM

Does it rankle you that when S&P or Moody's issues a credit warning on, say, Japanese debt, not to mention... More

“The News Was That It Happened”

Bernanke presser was good and right

By Dean Starkman   Apr 27, 2011 at 05:40 PM

I wish that was an original thought, but Randall Forsyth of Barron's made the apt observation on the post-game... More

Ask Bernanke About This, Too

Depression-era levels of black unemployment in some cities, well-documented in HuffPo

By Dean Starkman   Apr 27, 2011 at 11:24 AM

This morning's strong Huffington Post piece on black-unemployment is a useful clip to print out and carry to the... More

Whither Twitter?

By Dean Starkman   Apr 27, 2011 at 08:44 AM

What does it mean if Mark Zuckerberg doesn't obsess about you anymore? Fortune's story from last week on Twitter's... More

Ohio’s Lost Decade

Dayton paper shines light on a devastating job and income losses.

By Dean Starkman   Apr 25, 2011 at 05:52 PM

Look what's happened to payrolls in Montgomery County, Ohio, in the last decade: Annual private payrolls dropped about $3... More

Securities Star Chambers

By Dean Starkman   Apr 25, 2011 at 11:26 AM

Gretchen Morgenson sees hope in a recent arbitration case that, incredibly, found in favor of actual human beings against... More

The WSJ Editorial Board Whiffs on Taxes

Bad math plus hypocrisy on deficits equals Review & Outlook

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 22, 2011 at 04:22 PM

The New Republic's Jonathan Chait and Columbia's Jeffrey Sachs rip into the Wall Street Journal editorial page for making some... More

Follow the Money Leads On the Iowa AG

While the press follows on a campaign-cash story

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 22, 2011 at 12:05 PM

The National Institute on Money in State Politics's Follow The Money site reports on how campaign donations from the financial... More

WSJ Goes Page One With Another Gold “Record”

But in real terms the price is more than a third below its peak three decades ago

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 22, 2011 at 03:09 AM

It's time for another round of hyped and misleading "gold hits a record" stories. Gold closed at $1,500 for the... More

Big Companies and Jobs, Then and Now

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 21, 2011 at 10:46 PM

New York's Andre Tartar has a intriguing post on the biggest American corporations and how much their employment levels have... More