In recent months, discourse over the American economy has been at the center of national attention. Some newspapers, including The New York Times, have said that the conditions in the economy point to an economic bubble and expect the economy to crash in the near future. Much of this negative coverage points to a large bias problem in media that contributes to the idea of “fake news.”

Recently the economy has seen greater growth than in previous years. the Dow Jones Industrial Average had increased by some 7000 points and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index increased by 600 points, and both continue to look strong. This is important because these are generally good measures of economic success as they measure the strength of some of the most important companies in the United States. On top of this, the United States Gross Domestic Product (GDP) started to grow faster. GDP measures the amount of goods produced and services rendered in a fiscal year. In President Obama’s last year in office, the GDP grew by 1.85 percent compared to 2.53 percent in Trump’s first year – a trend that economic analysts expect to continue.

Many media outlets, including CNN, have attributed this growth to the leadership of the new administration. Trump has brought a certain stability to the economy because of his promise not to further regulate it. “Businesses know that there isn’t going to be widespread regulation, so they’re more willing to invest in the economy,” said Dilan Minutello ’19. Paired with the new tax laws which were passed in December 2017, this has helped to cultivate a strong economic climate with a large amount of growth
Despite all of this, some media outlets are still crying, “Recession!” Has growth increased exponentially in recent months? Yes, but that doesn’t mean that we have to go crazy and claim that the economy is going to crash. In fact, this ignorant media coverage of the economy in itself leads to declines in the economy by causing stock selloffs.

All of this points to a major issue with the media — the rise of outlets whose sole purpose is to publish alarmist and false articles so that they may boost their views. The “fake news” problem has existed since long before the 2016 election. However, it has been brought to people’s attention due to the discovery of Russian meddling through the use of false articles as well as the president’s comments on the subject. Since then, public faith in the media has declined steadily on both sides of the aisle and now many don’t trust any news they read unless it agrees entirely with their views. This has affected the economy because people who read only anti-Trump articles will surely have lost some faith in the American economy. Conversely, people who only read pro-Trump articles will have gained an unwarranted amount of confidence in our economy.

“Aside from the
media’s portrayal of the American economy, there is little to be concerned with.”

Aside from the media’s portrayal of the American economy, there is little to be concerned with. Across most metrics, including employment, GDP, and the stock market, everything looks stable and there is truly little evidence to suggest that there will be a recession in the near future. This doesn’t mean that you should invest all of your money into the stock market, but, especially with the recent dip in the economy showing that the market has corrected itself, there is much to be hopeful for in the future.