Doom and gloom. Doom and gloom. That’s all the media seems to want to share with us. No wonder most Americans think we’re heading for economic disaster. It just isn’t so.
Our economy has a few sticking points, for sure, but overall, I maintain that it is precisely the negative reporting that is causing any shift towards recession we might see.
OK, housing starts are down. Does the media report that home improvement and remodeling is up? No, they forgot to tell you that. Do they mention that commercial construction was up over 12 percent in 2007? No, I guess they missed that press release, too.
The war in Iraq is a mess, right? Actually, whether or not you believe in our presence there, the troop surge has worked remarkably well. Are you hearing about that on the nightly news? No, since things have improved so much, the number of Iraq stories we see in the media has been cut by more than half (and what does get reported are mostly whatever bad or aberrant stories they can dig up).
Gas prices are out of control, no question. There is no reason (other than corporate greed) that we should be paying $3 for a gallon of gas in this economy. While gas prices have been rising, so has the stock market. The Dow Jones, NASDAQ and other indexes are healthy and rising. The average, long-term, blue chip investor is getting great returns. We’ve all heard the stories about gas prices, but where are the stories about the booming markets?
These are only a couple of the more obvious examples.
It seems as if the mainstream media is trying to create a recession where none exists. I have my ideas and theories on why they’re doing this, but I’ll keep them to myself for now.
For whatever reason, it appears that the media is getting us all prepared to accept a recession. The important question is: Are we going to let them do it?
Are we going to have a good year, or a bad year (and who controls whether or not we do)?
