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Article: How do you create 250,000 jobs? In Washington, it's no problem.(A)
- Article from:
- The Washington Times (Washington, DC)
- Article date:
- March 2, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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****POLITICIANS TRYING TO SELL OR KILL TRADE DEALS HAVE DONE A SUPERB JOB OF CONFUSING THE PUBLIC.****
In less than a day, officials at the Federal Communications Commission last month created 250,000 new American jobs.
How'd they do it? By inflating a back-of-the-envelope estimate supplied by a Washington think tank predicting that a new global telecommunications trade pact would create about 750,000 U.S. jobs.
For FCC officials preparing to face reporters the next day, that wasn't enough. So in-house economists went with their own estimate, bumping up the final number a third.
Hours later on Feb. 16, Acting U.S. Trade ...