Business reporting should be about telling people what they need to know, not what they want to know.
That’s not businesses are buying. Sad. It’s not what they’re getting, either.
Too many businessmen only want their egos massaged, and their political inclinations confirmed. This is true when it comes to reporting, my own field, where we have Forbes, Fortune, Business Insider, and a host of other Republican-leaning publishers spinning the news. It’s doubly true for CNN and CNBC. The latter has an on-staff “wealth reporter” specifically hired to fluff the egos of his betters.
Sadly, it’s also true for economists, those “experts” hired by big banks and brokerages to figure out where things are headed.
Over the last month I’ve been treated on TV to a parade of so-called financial experts, each one confidently predicting that a recession is imminent, that it’s baked in, that it will likely be severe. These jamokes have insisted this will end the drive for working from home, that it will end demands for higher pay, that it will bring employees crawling on their knees to their bosses for a crust of bread, a revived dress code, and a two-hour daily commute.
It was all bullshit. It was spin. It was politics. It was telling people what they wanted to hear.
The evidence is in. GDP grew 2.4% in the last quarter. The economy isn’t slowing. It’s speeding up.
Want to know why? I’ll tell you.
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