Yes, I am sick. Sick of the way the news is constantly delivering what I find to be horrible news about the economy and then saying how wonderful it is.
"Oh look, there's a giant tornado that just took out the neighbor's house heading this way. Isn't that wonderful? I think everything is going to be okay, now."
No. It's not okay. The entire world is probably going to have to scrap it's monetary system and restart with the gold standard at a level of poverty we probably haven't experienced since the middle ages.
Let's look back at some of the articles over the past few months, starting with the horrid quarter 1 economic results:
First, we learned that the US economy was contract - BUT - stocks hit a record high. Of course, the latter wouldn't have anything to do with inflation giving prices a boost. The FED also overlooked the fact the economy shrunk and although things weren't rainbows and pearls, they said they aren't going to change anything. Wall Street rejoiced and went up - hey, when you have an inflation boulder rolling down a hill, why try to kill yourself stopping it? At least I can appreciate the stoic tone BBC reporters use.
In fact, Reuters US was almost exuberant about the decrease in the first quarter economy - after all few people lost their jobs and applied for unemployment for the first time. Of course, maybe that is because there are so few left to lose their jobs. I have to raise my eyes at the end statement of how Obamacare brought health care to so many. For some reason, a generously estimated 7 million people out of a population of 316 million, seems pitiful. And while I am perhaps cynical when I say 0.02% of the population is not expanding "coverage to many Americans," I find it very depressing contemplating how it can be all that affordable if Reuters says it increased economic activity by 0.1%. That, in my mind, is a lot of economic activity for such a small number who have only paid a few months of their premiums.
Granted, when the housing market again dipped in June, Reuters was less jubilant, they stuck to only reporting, briefly, the facts in this one. They quickly recovered in time to report a wonderful gains despite the bad housing market and even a "glimmer of hope" for it because confidence ratings about housing were increasing. Well, Reuters, I am also confident about the housing market. I am confident I can't sell my house which has lost 5% of its value since we bought it 12 years ago. I am confident I can't take that much of a loss and still have enough for a down payment on a home that will be big enough for my family. I am also confident that the assessment people who put their down payment money into an average performing money market account and rent will have more money in the end than anyone who sinks it into a house.
Then there is what I see as completely amazing bias journalism. On Jul 3, three articles were released - one stating that the DOW had jumped up because so many jobs were added in June (or maybe they were the standard jobs that college kids take up for the summer and employers frequently reserve for them - not really new, just dealing with vacation rush), and of course there was the fact our trade deficit lowered, which in my mind could be because Americans can't afford to buy anything, so of course our export spending is going to decrease. But in between those two rainbows was a real pot of gold that Wall Street seemed to miss. Jobless claims rose. More people filed for unemployment and more people stayed on unemployment beyond the first week. It amazes me how small and sparse this article is compared to the others. The title of the article is also very optimistic without much footing.
No comments:
Post a Comment