Tim Graham has written a post criticising the Washington Post for burying good news about the economy while putting bad news on the front page. He cites as examples the Post’s disparate treatment of the low unemployment rate (D-1) and the large trade deficit (A-1).

He’s right, but there’s an additional angle to this story, and that is the news media’s reaction to the growing trade deficit — almost universally portrayed as if it’s this horrible crisis. Graham links to this Cato study which demonstrates that growing trade deficits are associated with growing economies. And Pejman Yousefzadeh at Red State links to this article in TCS Daily, in which Donald Boudreaux argues that all the trade deficit means is that foreign investors are subsidizing American consumption.

This is hardly bad news, and I would welcome it on the front page of the Washington Post if the reporter would explain the actual economics of the trade deficit in addition to reporting the concerns of labor union spokespeople and protectionist congressmen.