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An article in the business section of today’s Denver Post titled “Colorado’s Economic Recovery Lags Behind Rest of the Nation” (http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_16128924), using only unemployment numbers as its measure of economic recovery, provided only the following comparison between Colorado and national unemployment rates:

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 9.6 percent in August, up from 9.5 percent in June 2009. In Colorado, it was 8 percent in July, down from 8.6 percent in June 2009.
Huh? The only titles that can be generated by that statistic are “Colorado’s recovery remains ahead of the rest of the nation,” or “Colorado, though better off than the rest of the nation, still mired in high unemployment.” So, does this bizarre mismatch between the article’s title (and narrative position) and what it’s only statistical comparison actually indicates a product of the Post’s conservative agenda (exploiting the reality-inverting meme that our economic woes are the Democrats’ fault), or just incredibly sloppy journalism? Who knows.

The German economy seems to have forgotten that there’s a global recession (http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2010/08/europes_economies). By supplying the increasing consumer and industrial demand in fast-emerging large economies like China, India, and Brazil, the German economy grew at an annual rate of almost nine percent in the last quarter, the most robust growth since reunification 2o years ago. Unemployment in Germany is lower than it was before the recession hit. And German economic success is fueling increased demand at home, sending a positive ripple throughout the world economy.

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