December 19, 2012
The top of the hour news segment on Morning Edition told listeners that forecasters have predicted that failing to meet the December 31st cutoff on budget negotiations would throw the economy back into recession (sorry, no link). This is not true. The projections for a recession assume that there is no deal on taxes and spending throughout 2013. They did not predict what would happen if it takes a few days or weeks in 2013 to come to an agreement that reversed most of the tax increases and spending cuts that go into effect at the end of the year.
This is a simple and important distinction. It is incredible that NPR could not find news writers who could get it right.
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