Major news media: The dogs that do not bark

Sometimes news stories are interesting for what they do not say.

All of the major wire news stories today made little more than passing reference to the fact the Fort Hood gunman was a devout Muslim, though today information is beginning to come out that makes that fact more relevant. In The Washington Post story on today's front page the man's religion is mentioned in the 15th paragraph. Online this morning, it is in the Post's headline.

This morning's AP report that official unemployment has topped 10 percent for the first time since 1983 also failed to put the fact in perspective.

The AP quoted Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist for New York-based investment firm Miller Tabak & Co., as saying, "You need explosive growth to take the unemployment rate down."

The report went on to say, "The economy soared by nearly 8 percent in 1983 after a steep recession, Greenhaus said, lowering the jobless rate by 2.5 percentage points that year. But the economy is unlikely to improve that fast this time, as consumers remain cautious and tight credit hinders businesses. In fact, many analysts expect economic growth to moderate early next year, as the impact of various government stimulus programs fades."

Now what happened in 1983 and why?

Sorry, the story doesn't say.

But a Wall Street Journal editorial from 2006, on the 25th anniversary of the Reagan revolution, offers a rationale that is hard to ignore, though it is.

"When Reagan proposed his 30% across-the-board tax-rate cut, his critics howled that this would cause demand to rise and lead to hyper-inflation," the editorial recalls. "In fact, supply rose faster than demand, and inflation fell to 4% from 13% and has fallen even lower since. When the economy went into a deep recession in 1981-82, Reagan's adversaries (and some of his own advisers) declared his tax cuts a failure. Reagan said stay the course, and the moment the final leg of the tax cut took effect, in January of 1983, the economy roared to life with an expansion that lasted more than seven years.

"When the budget deficit rose in the mid-1980s, the liberals warned that if Reagan would not raise taxes interest rates would skyrocket. He didn't and rates didn't. After the 1987 stock market crash, liberal John Kenneth Galbraith wrote that 'this debacle marks the last chapter of Reaganomics . . . and the irresponsible tax cuts.' Again, Reagan refused to buckle, and two months later the stock market recovered and the expansion roared on — an expansion that didn't end until George H.W. Bush reversed course and raised taxes in 1990."

In "Silver Blaze" Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about the dog that did not bark. That was a major clue.