All of the major US stock indices are, unfortunately, in bear market territory.

The S&P 500 crossed into Bearland yesterday, and dropped a bit further today. The Dow did so on July 1, and remains mired in its own “grizzly” situation. The Associated Press reported on July 2 that “the Nasdaq ….. hit that (bear) mark in March, moved higher and has now returned to a bear level.”

So if you’re in index funds, this has not been the best of times (but, on the “bright” side, to the extent your 401(k) or other retirement investments are index funds, your current contributions are buying more shares).

Nonetheless, be thankful if you’re not directly or indirectly invested in newspaper stocks.

Newsosaur reported today (HT to commenter dscott) that seven newspaper stocks hit record intraday lows in today’s trading before recovering a bit before the close:

The shares of seven publicly held newspaper companies today plunged to the lowest point in modern history in perhaps the worst single trading day ever for the industry.

McClatchy (MNI), Lee Enterprises (LEE), and GateHouse Media (GHS) hit all-time lows when their shares skidded respectively to $4.85, $3.11 and $1.55 in the opening hours of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Also hitting new lows today were:
- Gannett (GCI) at $17.42, the lowest point since 1990.
- Media General (MEG) at $10.34, the lowest point since 1994.
- New York Times Co. (NYT) at $13.03, the lowest point since 1996.
- News Corp. (NWS) at $14.20, the lowest point in 52 weeks.

….. the group has lost $3 billion of value since the first of this month …..

You really have to see the graph at Newsosaur to appreciate the full extent of the carnage since 2004. A few of them seem to be in a race to see which will happen first: the presidential election they’re covering with such obvious bias, or their insolvency. Talk about a quagmire.

As one of the supposed “newspapers of record,” and because of its self-appointed role as unofficial underminer of the Bush Administration, the New York Times deserves special mention, and display:

From an alltime high of $53.00 on June 20, 2002, NYT stock has fallen almost 75%. It’s hard to believe that there isn’t a correlation between that downward spiral and the paper’s ever-worsening case of Bush Derangement Syndrome in the intervening six years.

By contrast if you are wondering about how Clear Channel stock is doing since the announcement of its $400 million deal with Rush Limbaugh, here’s your answer: While the markets have sunk further since the beginning of July, Clear Channel stock was up $0.22, or 0.6%, for the week.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

___________________________________________

UPDATE: To be fair, it looks like most other radio stocks are in the tank. But that would appear to support the notion that in securing Rush, Hannity, and other talent, Clear Channel is smoking the rest of the pack — with the help of really weak management moves at some of the other broadcasting firms.

The Associated Press’s Jeannine Aversa “creatively” and selectively rounded figures presented in today’s Monthly Treasury Statement from Uncle Sam. That Treasury report, released this afternoon, covered monthly and year-to-date receipts and spending in the federal government.

By doing what she did, Aversa made sure we know that year-to-date receipts are down, but at the same time made Congress’s overspending look less serious than it really is.

Here’s the paragraph in question from her “Budget deficit up in first 9 months of budget year” report:

Spending of $2.2 trillion so far this year is up from $2.1 trillion reported for the corresponding period last year. Meanwhile, revenues of $1.93 trillion are down from $1.945 trillion a year ago.

Because Aversa rounded off the spending numbers to the nearest $.1 trillion while not supplying percentage changes, the average reader will think that spending is up a bit less than 5% so far this year.

Not exactly:

++++++++++++

July 16 Note: Due to the discovery of a Treasury Department weekly release on stimulus payments issued (example here), I have determined that June’s and year-to-date stimulus payments were $28.291 and $78.329 billion, instead of the $27.682 billion and $77.471 billion shown above. I had previously been adding totals from Daily Treasury Statements, and cannot explain why there is a difference. This changes the June 2008 receipts increase over June 2007 to 4.2% instead of 4.1%. It does not change the 2008 vs. 2007 year-to date receipts increase of 3.4%. None of what follows at the original post, which resumes after this insertion, needed to be changed, and has not been changed.

++++++++++++

On the receipts side, Aversa went to two decimal places with this year’s number, and to three with last year’s. Why? Of course I don’t know for sure, but it is convenient that by doing so she made the reported reduction in receipts look slightly larger than it really is.

The spending side is more bothersome. Aversa should have been consistent in how far to the right of the decimal point she went in reporting receipts and disbursements; that is a fundamental expectation in financial reporting. But she wasn’t. As you can see above, by reporting fiscal 2007’s year-to-date spending as $2.1 trillion, she made a 6.6% spending increase look like 4.8%.

That’s subtle, but effective, if your objective is to minimize the overspending going on in Congress. The spending increase percentage is 37% (6.6% divided by 4.8%) bigger than Aversa made it appear.

I also take issue with how the economic stimulus checks are being handled from a reporting standpoint, but my problem there is more with Uncle Sam, who considers the stimulus payments to be “tax refunds,” than it is with the media reporting, which merely follows the government line. As I said when I covered last month’s Monthly Treasury Statement (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog):

I would argue that the stimulus payments should really be treated as a form of spending, as there is no correlation between what individuals and families paid in income taxes and the stimulus payments/”economic aid” they have received or will receive. If I recall correctly, even those who paid no income taxes have received or will receive payments, while many relatively well-off taxpayers who paid in a great deal will receive nothing.

As you can see in the table above, receipts before deducting the stimulus payments are actually up over 3.4% through the first nine months of fiscal 2008. That’s not impressive, but I believe it’s a more accurate rendition of how collections are going than deducting the stimulus payments — which, after all, are “payments.”

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

Frequent commenter and discussion contributor dscott pointed me to the most recent monthly metro-area unemployment rates at Uncle Sam’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Out of 369 areas listed, the 16 metro areas with the highest unemployment rates, ranging from 8.8% to 19.2%, are all in either California or Michigan, including relative biggies Detroit and Flint in Michigan, and Modesto, Fresno, and Bakersfield in California. That fits the two-state recession, rest-of-country better model better than the “everything is seemingly out of control” media meme.

Talk about skewed: over 77% of all metro areas listed (286 of 369) have unemployment rates of 6% or LOWER.

But the rest of the country may not be feeling left out for too long: The POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy is attempting to spread the misery far and wide.

_____________________________________________

President Bush got heckled during a new citizen swearing-in ceremony last Friday. Add this to the under-reported interruptions of Gen. Petraeus’s testimony last year, and of Bush’s second inauguration speech (note how the Old Media headline disgracefully calls it “loud” and “peaceful”). Don’t forget the routine campus shout-downs of conservative speakers, sometimes to the point of forcing an end to the presentations.

Why is it that the incivility and intimidation always (and I believe that is not an exaggeration — if it’s not, there’s no way that it’s below 99%) comes from the left?

I also had to mention this because during my trip on Monday I heard a talk-show caller justify the Bush heckling by saying that they have no other outlet where they can vent. Gawd, what rubbish. They only have the comment sections after most online news stories, talk radio (which, uh, he was on), YouTube and its imitators, Daily Kos, Democratic Underground, Air America, calling their congressmen, good old snail mail, plus a gazillion lefty blogs and forums — and of course they can start their own. The bottom line is that they think “free speech” also includes an automatic right to be heard. Nope.

Finally, don’t the new citizens have a right to an uninterrupted celebration of the blessed event? Yes they do.

Finally II — Note the total lack of any negativity towards the interrupters in the Bush July 4 coverage. But the ONE TIME I can immediately recall in over 30 years of paying pretty close attention to things that a liberal president got heckled by someone from the right — where a woman shouted at President Clinton about his personal scandals while he was jogging, not speaking — CNN-TV treated it like it was a high crime.

_________________________________________________

Here’s some really good news for Michigan, Detroit, and the US, with a stat-shocker throw-in (bolds are mine):

Michigan’s only gasoline refinery, Marathon Oil in southwest Detroit, received final permission Friday to begin a $1.9-billion expansion of its plant, which will create 800 construction jobs and more than 100 permanent jobs …..

….. The company had pile drivers in the ground at the site minutes after the Department of Environmental Quality announced it had approved its air pollution permit.

….. the new addition will be geared for squeezing gasoline and diesel fuel from controversial Alberta tar sands — unconventional heavy oil that has become more attractive as oil prices skyrocket.

….. Michigan once had more than 150 refineries.

The actual permanent job estimate is 135. If anyone knows of an increased output estimate, e-mail me.

It would be even better if the refinery would use US tar sands — but, as I understand it, the stewards of the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy would never dream of doing that.

You’ll see at the link that enviros are not pleased. Too bad, so sad.

_______________________________________________

Can’t let this one from Mao-excuser Nicholas Kristof at the International Herald last week slide by without my $.02 (bold is mine):

Patson Chipiro, a democracy activist, wasn’t home when Robert Mugabe’s thugs showed up looking for him.

So they grabbed his wife, Dadirai, and tormented her by chopping off one of her hands and both of her feet. Finally, they threw her into a hut, locked the door and burned it to the ground.

This is too much to take. In Nick’s world, to chop off body parts to intimidate political opponents is to “torment” (as a verb), while using aggressive interrogation techniques and waterboarding to get information that might save soldiers’ or others’ lives is “torture” that should never be allowed.

The howler headline of Kristof’s piece is “If Only Mugabe Were White.” Indeed: If Mugabe were white, Kristof might have written his report with accurate words.

It gets “better.” In a News York Times column Sunday, Kristof called for a “Truth Commission, with subpoena power, to investigate the abuses in the aftermath of 9/11.” I’m all for throwing the book at any person or group who stepped over the line. But Kristof surely wouldn’t be qualified to prepare a report. His Times column describing what our guys have allegedly done used the word “torture” six five times; the objectively less-negative word “torment,” not once.

So Nick, where’s the evidence that our guys have chopped off body parts?

An extended version of the last item at this post is at NewsBusters.org.

From Navasota, Texas:

July 2, 2008

Disabled Navasota senior, Melvin “Ray” Sanders, 72, doesn’t think of himself as a hero, even though he broke a window with his bare hands, in order to rescue his 51-year-old disabled neighbor, Delisa “Kay” Gibson, from an apartment fire as threatening flames loomed overhead on June 22.

“I don’t consider myself a hero. It was just something I did,” said Sanders.

According to Fire Chief Jason Katkoski, the fire started at approximately 1:15 a.m. in Sanders’ apartment. Sanders barbecued earlier that day and emptied briquettes into a trashcan on the front porch area by a storage closet. Once the discarded briquettes began to smolder, a fire erupted and quickly traveled from the outside wall to the attic space, where it continued towards Gibson’s adjoining four-plex apartment.

Sanders was awakened from his sleep, but dismissed the strange noise as the sound of rain. Twenty minutes later, the disabled resident was up on his feet after his smoke detector sounded. Sanders exited his apartment through a back kitchen window and immediately ran to help his neighbor, who was sound asleep.

Loud knocking on her front bedroom window awakened Gibson, who admits she was in a daze and didn’t understand why Sanders was insisting she stay clear of the living room area and exit her apartment through the window.

Sanders was forced to break out the window with his bare fist as Gibson fell to the floor in shock. Gibson was unable to get back on her feet because of a walking disability and limp left arm caused by a recent stroke.

“I heard glass break and when I looked out the window, all I saw was an orange glow,” said Roxie Sargeant, daughter of resident, Luis Robinson, whose apartment faces Sanders’.

Sargeant added she could tell that Sanders was struggling to get Gibson to cooperate. “From what I saw, Ray handled himself real good. The lady was hysterical,” she said.

The determined Sanders reached inside the apartment and was able to remove Gibson, despite his own arthritic left leg that at times hinders his ability to walk without a cane.

“It was hard, but I did it. You can do a lot of things when you have to,” said Sanders.

Once Gibson was safely out of the house, she looked up and saw the blazing fire. “I was shaking. I’m so thankful for my life. Material things can be replaced … you can’t get another life,” Gibson said with tear-stained eyes. …..

Go here for the rest of the story.