Bad Math at the Grey Lady

The folks at Powerline cut the NYTimes a new one today. Columnist Edmund Andrews made an extremely egregious error in an article on Social Security in the January 2nd edition of the Times. This correction was printed yesterday:

Correction: January 9, 2005, Sunday:
The Economic View column last Sunday, about the Bush administration's economic proposals, misstated a projection by the Congressional Budget Office about Social Security benefits. Under current law, a median-income worker who retires today can expect an annual benefit of $14,900, not $26,000.

The problem is this inaccuracy completely guts the central point of the article:

That raises basic questions of fairness, but also of practicality. The risk is that people will glide along for the next several decades, but then rebel when growing numbers of them experience a huge drop in their standard of living as soon as they retire. They might then use their political power to reverse the cuts.

And the Times doesn't tell you that. And, of course, hardly any notices Corrections.