He took a similar tack in a March 3, 2008, piece. “The media’s factually unsubstantiated claims of an impending recession have been going on for over a year now,” he wrote. “Many news journalists hurt people’s outlook about the economy with inappropriate comparisons and sensationalism.”

In April 2008, Cain admitted that the economy was skidding, but only, he argued, because Democrats and the mainstream media had spooked everybody with its negativity. “This writer believes that a major portion of the job losses are due to media pessimism, and employers who have swallowed the negative outlook and have hesitated to fill existing jobs or new positions” Cain wrote on April 7.

By summer, Cain was claiming that the looming financial crisis was a similar media fabrication. In a July 21, 2008, column, Cain referred to Wall Street’s troubles as “the mainstream media’s it’s-not-a-crisis-but-we-are-going-to-make-it-look-like-one banking crisis”. In less than two months, Lehman Brothers would declare Bankruptcy and, a few weeks later, Congress would pass a massive bailout to rescue the nation’s largest banks.

And even in September, Cain was upbraiding Democrats for ignoring great economic news. “We still have not had a recession since 2001,” Cain wrote early that month. “But don’t tell the Democrats and the mainstream media. You might disrupt their imaginary recession.”