OOPS: Fox's latest attempt at economic analysis missed GDP by $10 trillion

Written by Christine Schwen

Published

On Fox & Friends Saturday, co-host Dave Briggs treated us to another great moment in Fox's proud tradition of failed economic punditry.

Here's Briggs on former Council of Economic Advisers chair Christina Romer's statement that the stimulus prevented a great depression:

BRIGGS: That is -- is possible, what it did also do was add $2.8 trillion to our deficit. At least that combined with the other stimulus and other spending measures of the Obama administration. That's over 90 percent of our GDP. Since she took over, we've added over 90 percent of our GDP to our debt.

Wow, that's just a stunning mangling of economic data.

First, $2.8 trillion is not “over 90 percent of our GDP” ($2.8 trillion is closer to the GDP of France); 90 percent of our GDP is about $13 trillion.

And we have not “added over 90 percent of our GDP to our debt.” The CBO projected that we could do so (under one scenario) by 2020.

Furthermore, if the debt does get that high, it would not be what we've added “since she took over,” but the total debt we've accumulated since the beginning of the republic.

Just another example of why it's so, so important to invite an economist on to talk about the economy every once in a while.

UPDATE: Hours later, without any apparent irony, this Fox on-screen text asked if “the media” has “gotten it right” when it comes to the economy.

I think we can all agree that some people in “the media” really haven't.