What happened to the good news?
On January 27, Bloomberg news carried a story that, in a rational world, would have been plastered over the front pages of our major newspapers to the jubilation of financial pundits everywhere. The story was about General Electric’s cautious reentry into the commercial paper market, the unsecured IOUs that banks and large corporation issue in order to fund their daily operations. It only works if those entities can find sources willing to give them some dough in exchange for the promise to pay. “Seventeen months after seizing up at the onset of the credit crisis,” the story tells us, “the $1.69 trillion commercial paper market may be the first to cut its reliance on federal bailout programs.
About $245 billion of 90-day commercial paper that companies sold to the Federal Reserve starting in October will mature this week and next, central bank data show. As much as $50 billion to $70 billion of the debt may be rolled over and bought by investors, according to Barclays Capital in New York.
The market’s ability to absorb the maturing debt may build confidence that U.S. companies are able to fund themselves without government support, said Deborah Cunningham, chief investment officer for taxable money markets at Federated Investors Inc. Investors, betting the commercial paper market has stabilized, pushed interest rates to record lows this month and bought the most 90-day debt since September, Fed data show.
This is one of many good bits of economic news that have emerged in the last month or so. Why is it not being ballyhooed about the media? My guess: because self-indulgent wallowing in hysterical gloom is more fun.
QUEEN FOR A DAY
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I agree, it all depends how you read it, how it’s written and what is emphasized.
For example, (and this is just off the top of my head), there are, what, 8 million unemployed at the moment? That’s unfortunate, of course.
But what’s never mentioned is that there are also something like 110 million EMPLOYED.
You just never run across that little tidbit which gives the employment figures a totally different slant. Why? Why don’t you ever run across it? Because it’s “boring”.
I call it the “Queen for a Day” syndrome.
That was the name of a TV program that I used to watch avidly in my infanthood. Even then I realized that what makes news and what gets on the news is bad luck stories, not the good news.
Take a look at these stories fresh out of the today’s media bakery:
1. “MANY WITHOUT FOOD, WATER RUSH TO SHELTERS’ WARMTH”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090130/ap_on_re_us/winter_storm
Well, again, that’s too bad, but is this the first time something like this has happened? Is this really “news”?
2. “EXXON MOBIL SHATTERS US RECORD FOR ANNUAL PROFIT”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090130/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_exxon_mobil
This is my kind of news. But I’ll bet Exxon’s CEO and staff will be called in front of a congressional “hearing” or some such, to explain their “unfair” profits or some such.
3. FAMILY: OCTUPLET’S MOTHER HAS 6 OTHER CHILDREN!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090130/ap_on_he_me/calif_octuplets
Although the news media is “uuuuuhing” and “aaaaaahing” about this event, I find it not only outrageous but repulsive, altho it would take me too long to explain why.
Am I the only won who feels this way? I am a nearly dead, white male, so I guess that must have something to do with it.
It’s like unwed motherhood. That state of unmatrimony used to be a cause for shame or at least discretion.
But now, it’s almost a badge of honor to haul your child around admitting to whomever will listen without a whisper of shame that there is no father around.
Why, it’s even better if you state that you don’t know who the father is!
Ugh!
Mr. Kimball & Whistle_Blower,
Very interesting posts both.
On the morning after the election, I was listening to the BBC on the radio (sad…yes, I am *that* much the masochist) .
For the very first time since the start of the war – the BBC focuses exclusively on the most horrifying aspect possible – the BBC was suddenly effusive (and I mean bizarrely giddy) about how wonderfully things are going in Iraq.
I wondered, “what happened to the BAD news?”
Answer: the coronation happened. See? Miraculous change was in the air already.
Such blatantly partisan reporting is the kind of thing normally confined to fascist regimes. Naturally, Mr. Kimball’s piece prefacing the “Dictatorship of Relativism” series in The New Criterion came to mind.
Similar behavior to the nutcases who seem to pine for the downfall of society, those people who strangely yearn for the chaos of nationwide or worldwide anarchy.
“My guess: because self-indulgent wallowing in hysterical gloom is more fun.”
Nope, that’s only half of it. The left-wing dominated media outlets perceive our current economic challenges as the perfect excuse to justify a power grab by their elitist allies. And there is something else that cannot be ignored: Barack Obama and the Democratic Party are more likely to turn these media corporations into non-profit organizations legally entitled to tax payer subsidies.
Well, the latest CBO projection of the economy, for what it is worth, estimates that over the next 11 years we will produce $200 trillion in Gross Domestic Product, rising from $14 trillion now to $22 trillion then. Measured against that prospect, the loss of up to a $1 trillion in GDP in the current downturn doesn’t look that drastic. Neither does the $2 trillion or so in deficit spending it will take to keep losses that low. Indeed, CBO thinks that, without any changes in current law, the national debt in 2019 will be scarcely larger than it is today measured as a percentage of GDP. That picture of the future looks not very gloomy, and we’ll get there if Congress doesn’t, as usual, make the wrong decisions now and as we go along, like assuming that it knows best how to divide that projected pie, and claiming more of it so it can do so.
This self-indulgent wallowing is nothing more than drama by all us Boomers, X-ers and Y-ers, who want to be able to say we’ve been through times just as tough as the “Greatest Generation”. I can almost hear it as we play Walter Mitty in our minds: “So you were at the Bulge, were you Grandpa? That’s nothing: I took out a Fannie Mae mortgage out on a house I knew I had no hope in hell of paying off. Yeah, that’s right – I fought with Obama in the Economic Crisis of ’09. Damn, we were always afraid the Treasury printing presses might break down at any minute. So don’t let me hear you talking about how chilly your toesy-woesies got.”
It’s just one more example of hyperbole by the avatars of these age-groups – the tv hosts and talking heads who try to convince us and everyone else that times are so terrible that we must be tough too, darn it! What incredibly conceited BS.
As the true tough Americans leave the stage, we see them replaced by the younger lightweights who have lived their entire pampered lives in exaggeration of indifferent character and modest achievements. The Boomers and their younger allies have overstated everything about the difficulty of their lives. From the supposed “courage” in undermining our country’s fighting men (not only in Vietnam but in Iraq as well); trying to paint themselves as moral heroes by being “free spirits”, when all they were doing was avoiding getting jobs and growing up; to fudging the seriousness of the few risks they’ve run and the hard times they’ve faced.
That’s what all the hysteria about an “economic crisis” is all about. We really have no effing idea what hard times are, and this is our chance to act tough like the big kids do. How pathetic. This recession is merely a cyclical event, synergized by such grotesque amounts of incompetent government meddling and mismanagement that financial markets were knocked off balance.
It will solve itself if we just stand off and keep the government out of it. But then that would be missing out on all those wonderful opportunities to create an atmosphere of panic in order to massively increase the degree of central government control in virtually every area of our lives. And we couldn’t pretend we’re just as tough as out parents and grandparents.
Well, GE is sitting on 130 billion of federal loan guarantees, so it’s not like they’re pedaling without training wheels.
Most of the media, and much of academia, are in the business of creating & perpetuating positive feedback loops–otherwise known as vicious circles.
When housing prices are going up 10%/year, they come up with all kinds of reasons why the prices will keep going up at this rate forever and all days wiill now be filled with sunshine.
And when the economy is having problems, they develop analyses that emphasize the negative side of things.
No one wants to be left out of either the eurphoria or the gloom. This herd behavior surely makes cycles more violent than they would otherwise be.
It seems to me that it is in the Democrats and their supporting media’s interest to paint as awful an economic picture as possible now while they can pin it on the previous administration. That way, whatever progress is made can be ballyhooed as even more awesome than anybody ever imagined because they overcame the horrible conditions they were describing earlier.
And of course it’s much easier to get people to accept the need for silly programs packed into the stimulus package when they think the sky is falling.
Two reasons why the doom & gloom is still happening:
1. It’s still plausible to blame it on Bush
2. They are maintainig the scapegoating of freedom/capitalism that Obama needs in order to give us more of what did fail — the regulatory state.
Not until enough time passes for people to realize that the ongoing pain is coming from Dear Leader’s New New deal will this change… Then we’ll see stories about why inflation is good.
Normally, it would not make sense for media outlets in dire economic trouble to downplay the economy, since the loss of advertising revenue that follows will hasten their downfall.
However, to the MSM, religious fanaticism (that religion being Marxism) has always trumped the profit motive. (Which is why none of them — and I mean none — have moved to the right to gain market share, in fact they almost all have moved farther to the left).
Most of these media outlets will not get government subsidies. Maybe a few will. But due to their religious fanaticism they are willing to become martyrs for the cause of destroying democracy, capitalism, Christianity, and Israel.
They are the economic equivalent of the Jihadis – willing to sacrifice their institutions for the faith.
They’ve got to wait until their agenda is passed, particularly the Stimulus Bill. Without the sense of crisis and fear, they won’t be able to logroll the House and Senate.
Saint Patton @ Jan 30, 2009 – 8:12 pm: “Similar behavior to the nutcases who seem to pine for the downfall of society, those people who strangely yearn for the chaos of nationwide or worldwide anarchy.”
The right-wing survivalists who yearned for a nuclear war during the 1980s, so they would have an excuse to use their guns and bunkers.
The religious extremists, who secretly yearn for the end-of-days, to rid the world of “sinners.”
The left-wing Bush haters, who wanted to see $10/gallon gas, an economic collapse, and environmental catastrophe, as long as it all happened before the election (or at least before January 20th). Meanwhile, claiming that they were concerned about the harm done to the poor and middle class by $3/gallon gas and the economic recession.
The police departments who look for an excuse to use their SWAT teams, when there aren’t enough violent criminals to justify the special weapons and tactics.
The first two are merely crazy self-indulgent fantasies. The last two are real threats to our freedom.
The National Socialist Democratic Peoples’ Party wants to remain in power forever. Therefore, make sure that at least half the population is dependent on the government for a portion of its’ income. Increase regulation of as many of the productive economic sectors as possible, including a portion of State ownership where feasible, and keep turning the screws. Eventually one will arrive effective economic and political control of the nation, in perpetuity.
My guess: because self-indulgent wallowing in hysterical gloom is more fun.
Or it sells better. Or serves an agenda, which a cynic might attribute to the new President’s almost daily monologue on deepening and worsening ecomomic gloom.
(a President is supposed to lead, not reinforce negativity and spin non-stop self-fulfilling prophecies)
When “the news” in Iraq turned even slightly positive, the topic began to drop off the front pages of newspapers. The spirit there seemed to be…we don’t want to report anything good happening in Iraq under GWB !
One thing you have to remember is that many media people really don’t understand finance very well…and when you’re writing/talking about something of which you don’t have a good grasp, the safest thing to do is to reflect the opinions of other people…
You mean we don’t need the bailout? Obviously the Senate will do the right thing then, and stop it. And if they don’t, obviously the president will do the right thing and veto it. Right?
U-P-D-A-T-E
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I guess I’m not the only one who feels repelled by the “Octuplets” incident. (See my posting #1 above)
I quote from today’s update story whose title is:
GRANDMA: OCTUPLET’S MOM OBSESSED WITH HAVING KIDS
LOS ANGELES – The woman who gave birth to octuplets this week conceived all 14 of her children through IN VITRO fertilization, *IS NOT MARRIED* and has been obsessed with having children since she was a teenager, HER MOTHER said.
. . .
“It can’t go on any longer,” she said in a phone interview Friday. “She’s got six children AND NO HUSBAND. I was brought up the traditional way. I firmly believe in marriage. But she didn’t want to get married.” (Awww gee, how noble of her. . .how individualistic)
To read the whole sordid story, go here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090131/ap_on_re_us/octuplets
I wonder who’s paying for all this mess?
I’ll tell you who: you and me via the State of California, is who – a state near bankruptcy, I might add. (and now you know why).
If I weren’t writing in a respectable public forum, my choice of words and my delivery, I assure you, would be quite different.
My question is who paid for the in vitro fertilization – a not inexpensive procedure…
You should do a blog entry on why so many of Obama’s nominees are hitting roadblocks because of their failure to pay taxes. I’m thinking here of Nancy Killefer and Tom Daschle, although there have been one or two others. I thought paying taxes was our “patriotic” duty, at least according to the bloviator Biden.
alas, Mr Market doesn’t believe, so far, that rolling over a quarter billion of short-term paper balances out “trillions” in annual budget deficits for years to come.
From above: [Perhaps] “self-indulgent wallowing in hysterical gloom is more fun.”
I always wondered about why Nietzsche chose to talk about “optimism” and “pessimism” when he opened up the question of what was driving Greek tragedy. Leo Strauss says that “optimism” stands for rationality in the Socratic sense in the Introduction to “Socrates and Aristophanes.”
There’s definitely a lot to the idea that the comic, the optimistic and the rational accompany each other. We reason primarily to move beyond fear: when we come up with excuses for being fearful, that’s not being “reasonable” as much as “rationalizing.”
I wonder how we’ll respond to more serious crises? Lincoln was able to talk about a “new birth of freedom” not during a campaign, a manufactured event, but at the height of the Civil War. That rhetoric doesn’t avoid the issue of blood, but doesn’t end in hopelessness either. For more, if anyone’s interested in what I think – analysis/commentary on the Gettysburg Address.
What, GE is able to resist a hostile take-over by Lenin, stalin and company? thats to good a news item.
The real front page story is that, according to Nancy Pelosi, I’ve lost my job for the 2.7th time this week.