You may have missed this little brouhaha over the Thanksgiving weekend. We posted an analysis of a deeply flawed (dare I say fabricated?) data analysis from the Hoover Institution.

Dated August 7th, it seemed to have been overlooked during the Summer; it went viral recently.

Something about it seemed off — California’s economy is fairly robust, the largest in the country (If it were a standalone nation, it would be a top 5 economy). How could they be lagging national job creation so much? A little digging by @TBPInvictus here (he does amazing work) led to some very obvious analytical errors.

Not that these mistakes stopped many politicos and even journalists from blindly repeating the mistake. “Rip & Read” journalism still lives.

Michael Hiltzik of the L.A. Times did a very thorough follow-up. Hoover has retracted the published article. Its author, Lee Ohanian, deleted his Twitter account. This is the second such time a basic ECON101 error appeared from this author and this source. (We may have to dive deeper into the archive to see what else was wrong).

Journalists are advised to stop parroting hired guns for the Fast Food industry or other partisan players.

Previously:
Never Mix Payroll and Household Survey Data (November 29, 2024)

Misunderstanding Seasonal Adjustments (June 10, 2024)

Sources:
The Hoover Institution says all recent California job growth has been in government jobs. That’s completely wrong.
By Michael Hiltzik
La Times,  Dec. 3, 2024

California’s Businesses Stop Hiring
by Lee Ohanian
Hoover, August 7, 2024