Somewhere—the Czar regrets he cannot cite the exact reference—your Volgi once said that media bias is ever-so-there when reporting on the economy.

That is interesting, the Czar thought, as he wolfed down caviar with a spoon and waved his hand to order some dissidents put against a brick wall. And when the Czar is interested, he starts watching.

The readers doubtless recall how—when Bush was President—good news was really just a cover up for bad news. The fact you had a job merely meant you were between unemployments. Your stock growth was merely a sign of pre-collapse. Companies relocating from the city to spacious suburban digs were a symptom of urban flight, while the companies moving from the burbs to the city were doing so because of the outrageous lack of affordable real estate.

Your czar plucked this at random basically, from December of 2007. It’s a bit on President Bush discussing how strong the US economy was at that point.

Note the use of the words. Storm clouds. Crunch. Problems. Eroded. Turmoil. Battered. How on earth could a GOP President say the strong economy is good right now? Is he unaware of how badly the Democrats want a President elected in 2008?

Now we can see if the other side of the coin is true.

Here is a news story covering how economists are starting to conclude the recovery is a long way off, and that things are very likely to get much worse. “Details of the report were almost universally grim.”

But note how early in the story comes this pull quote:

However, the dismal employment report also comes just as some “green shoots” of incipient growth have surfaced in more forward-looking economic indicators, such as consumer spending, building permits, factory orders, stock prices and consumer expectations.

Green shoots. Growth. Forward-looking. Spending. Permits. Orders. Stock prices. Expectations. All nice word choices, those.

So what if the economic indicators are universally bad? The important thing is how good they look.

Sounds a bit like the current Administration, actually.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.