The broken window fallacy

Every now and then, there is a story about how disasters help the economy with all the new jobs in construction and so on. The economic illiteracy required to give that idea even superficial plausibility exceeds the usual reporter's ignorance: not only does the idea fail even thirty seconds' reflection, Bastiat explained the fallacy in detail two centuries ago. Trust the Boston Globe, the worst broadsheet paper in the country, to provide the latest example. The Boston Globe is one of the few sources I ignore completely, though in this case the Arts & Letters Daily link tempted me in to enjoy the Globe's humiliation.

News sources on my ban list:

1. The Globe - try reading it for a week; it will amply prove itself the most stupid paper you have ever read.
   
2. The Daily Mail - a rabid tabloid with the loosest sense of truth, it has somehow become digg fodder and is showing up all over the place as though it employed sane or honest reporters.
3. Newsweek - self-parodying in its earnest furrowed-brow stupidity, it is strictly an opinion follower; if you read any other news already, reading Newsweek is like reading one of those old Reader's Digest compressed classics after reading the original. Newsweek is also distinguished among the three newsweeklies by the least attention to accuracy, in its polls and in its articles.
   

I will read articles anywhere else, even occasionally lunatic blogs, but those three offer nothing but the mental clutter of disinformation. Well, and the occasional funny self-immolation, like today.