Analysis For Our Age

Consider two items from last week's new that caught my eye:

1. One of many recent reports on the February job growth and unemployment statistics. 
2. A column analyzing the efforts of Kansas rich-guy arch-conservative Charles Koch to control the libertarian think-tank, the Cato Institute. 

Concerning the first item:  While the unemployment figures were definitely good news, nearly all media sought to avoid saying so, seeming to emphasize instead the ways in which the government's monthly statistic does not capture the entire employment picture.   It's certainly true that this single statistic, like many another statistical standard, is only one of a number of yardsticks that economists use to try to assess the trends in the economy. 

It's a bit like the old story of a gang of blindfolded men trying to describe an elephant - you can't rely just on what's reported by the fellow who grabs the elephant's trunk, nor just the one who happens to feel its flank, or its tusk.  You'll get a better idea with several reports, even though it may not be a perfect image even then.  The same is true of describing the economy.  Yet when one statistic that's been calculated the same way for decades shows an uptick or a downtick, that's nevertheless an indicator that should be taken at face value, rather than seeking to negate its importance. 

Concerning the second report, writer Ezra Klein offers a valid point in saying that even if the CATO Institute's policy leanings aren't usually his cup of tea, he has always been able to depend on their analyses to be "informed by more than partisan convenience."  In other words, they may hew to a specific policy approach, but they'll apply it without bias to the actions of either major party.  As Klein further notes, that isn't the case with many others (he points out that in the 90s, the conservative Heritage Foundation helped develop the idea of universal, private-based healthcare with an individual mandate as an alternative to Democratic proposals of that time; yet now that it was adopted and passed by a Democratic President, they can find no value in it.) 

CATO has probably remained above such politically motivated fact-flipping only because there has not been a Libertarian administration yet; but clearly Koch's efforts to control it could turn it into another political parrot, finding different analytical foundations as political fortunes change.

In each case, we see different aspects of the deteriorating quality of basic social and policy analysis in U.S. society.  Of course partisans have always tended to emphasize the facts and views that help support their preconceptions; certainly even the best-designed statistical yardsticks may omit one factor or another.   These flaws go with the territory, but it's difficult to weigh policy alternatives if all the analysis available is politically pitched by design. 

Where ARE today's reliable sources of unbiased, objective analysis of social, political and economic issues?  There are precious few, if any.