Sunday Spin

Christina Romer - chairperson,Council of Economic Advisers, i.e. White House economic adviser - appeared on CNN and ABC this morning. According to a Washington Post email I get, they have quite different takes.

Here's the headlines:

CNN: State of the Union
     Romer: December jobs report a 'disappointment'

     versus

ABC: This Week
     Job losses moderating, Romer says

Is this just The Washington Post trying to confuse?

Here's what WP chose to quote in their email.

CNN

"An important fact is GDP not only needs to grow, it needs to grow at about a normal rate, like at 2.5 percent to actually bring down the unemployment rate," Romer said. "So the thing we're going to be looking for is, do you see that kind of robust GDP growth?"

In the meantime, targeted actions like tax incentives and encouraging at least temporary hiring must be in place now, Romer says, to assuage the economic impact.

FYI: GDP grew at 2.2% in the third quarter of 2009 - the latest available number. You'd think WP would mention that in the email.


ABC: This Week

White House economic adviser Christina Romer said despite lagging job numbers in December, a broader look at job losses shows an steady improvement in the American job market.

"I think it is important to put them (the losses outlined in a December jobs report) in context, because they are, I think, still part of this overall trend towards greatly moderating job losses," Romer said.

Romer sees an improving GDP as another sign of steady progress for the economy.

"GDP, which grew in the third quarter of last year, is going to grow even more strongly when we get the numbers for the fourth quarter," she said. "And I think ... if you look at basically every forecast, they are saying steady GDP growth over 2010."

So the two headlines aren't necessarily at odds with each other. You can be disappointed that the job losses are moderating (instead of creating jobs), but the person who wrote the headlines should be careful about choice of words.