Gene Epstein knows a thing or two about economic data. Before becoming the Economics Editor for Barron's in 1993, he was a senior economist at the New York Stock Exchange. Now in Econospinning, Epstein supplies readers with a book that attempts to cut through the veil of economic misinformation commonly reported in today's media.

Assuming no prior knowledge on the readers part, each chapter of Econospinning is structured around fairly simple propositions about the economy or about specific economic data—from tracking employment numbers to measuring corporate profitability—that are then contrasted with the distortions of today's media coverage.

Along the way, Epstein exposes bad reporting by the elite media, including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Economist—and especially by The New York Times and its economics columnist Paul Krugman,

Epstein also deconstructs CNN newscaster Lou Dobbs’ coverage of outsourcing and globalization; the illusory connection between abortion and lower crime rates, and bad theories about the role of real estate brokers, featured in the bestseller Freakonomics; the treatment of the working class portrayed in Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed; and the sensationalized coverage of the employment report by CNBC’s "Squawk Box."

From the disputes over Social Security to misinterpretations of the unemployment rate, Econospinning points out the unfortunate lack of integrity that pervades mainstream economic reporting.

Gene Epstein (New York, NY) has been Barron's Economics Editor since 1993 and writes the column, "Economic Beat." A frequent speaker on the conference circuit, Epstein has been interviewed on CNBC, CNN, NJN Public TV, and BBC TV. He holds an MA in economics from the New School and a BA from Brandeis University.

The way the economy is interpreted can influence many things, from economic policy and business decisions to investment planning and trading strategies. Yet with general interest magazines devoting ever more space to economic issues, with books on these issues routinely making the bestseller list, and with hundreds of media outlets providing 24/7 coverage of economic data, it is harder than ever to separate the substance from the spin.

That's the finding of Gene Epstein, who should know a thing or two about the economy, having covered the subject for Barron's since 1993, when he became the Dow Jones financial weekly's first Economics Editor and began writing the regular column, "Economic Beat." Now, in Econospinning, Epstein cuts through the veil of economic misinformation commonly reported in today's media. Each chapter of Econospinning is structured around fairly simple propositions about the economy or about specific economic data—from tracking employment numbers to measuring corporate profitability—that are then contrasted with the distortions of today's media coverage.

Along the way, Epstein exposes loose reporting by focusing almost strictly on the elite media, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and The Economist.Wherever relevant, Epstein expands on criticisms originally leveled against the reportage of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman by the paper's then-public editor Daniel Okrent. At the time, Okrent touched off a firestorm of protest from bloggers and credentialed professionals eager to defend their champion, even when his criticisms were more than transparently valid, as Epstein shows in painstaking detail.

Econospinning also devotes separate chapters to the coverage of outsourcing and globalization by CNN newscaster Lou Dobbs, whose slant on these topics Epstein finds to be jingoistic at bottom; to the bestseller Freakonomics, whose better-known arguments—on the connection between abortion and lower crime rates, and on the deleterious role of real estate brokers—are exposed as groundless; and to the semi-classic Nickel and Dimed, whose core thesis—that hard work by the working poor is a sucker's game—is easily disproved. The book also critiques coverage of the employment numbers by the CNBC-TV show Squawk Box.

As a corrective to certain key misconceptions about the economy and economic data, and as a series of lessons on how to discriminate between spin and substance, Econo-spinning is an informative, entertaining, and unforgettable read.

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