What Will the Press Mistakenly Focus on Today?
Here’s a Wordle of the April 27th FOMC press Q&A (only):
Click through for larger graphic
“Inflation” ruled the day by a longshot.
NOTE: I have removed the words “Chairman,” “Bernanke,” and “economy.” According to Wordle, the word “jobs” did not appear, or at least not sufficiently to make the cut (though the singular “job” did; it’s a bit southwest of “Inflation”) . “Unemployment” is east of “Inflation,” “Employment” just southwest of “job.”
To the press corps: Inflation was not then — and is not now — our most pressing issue. The labor market — unemployment and jobs (and how we’re going to create them) — is. Please focus your attention on that, at least until Kim Kardashian or Snooki does something noteworthy and you have to move on. Thank you.
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June 22nd, 2011 at 12:52 pm
I see a derivative of my focus word is in there .. ie Japan and the CNBC banter just now .. the world economy will slow because of Japans nuke & energy situation .. I’ve been wondering why is Japan such a wienerdog of an economy .. unless they are the joe6packs in the eyes of capitalists .. then it would make sense
June 22nd, 2011 at 1:15 pm
This should be a weekly, daily feature at BP. Invictus, brilliant.
“…How about fears of Dodd-Frank a lower debit card fees will hurt…”
If every retailer makes more per transaction and every consumer pays less for their transactions (in a system that is already installed) isn’t that going to INCREASE purchasing, economic activity, and GDP? Not in GOP-land where they want to bring back Bush’s Ownership Society and make it even easier for Chinese firms to screw Paukson in their IPOs… they want to turn the NYSE into the Vancouver Exchange.
Invictus: Thank you for the props. Always appreciated.
June 22nd, 2011 at 1:20 pm
…Paulson. the Hedgie of the Year last year, I meant, who is guess what? Under performing the indices now…
June 22nd, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Inflation amen
but the Fed believes perseverating about it helps market confidence and bonds
and they are real nervous now to “manage” the bond market end of QE2
and the net new flood of govvies from the govvie
as i say markets have a hard time completely anticipating/digesting news of a FUTURE $60 bio a month in net supply
ahead of it actually showing up starting next week….
June 22nd, 2011 at 3:56 pm
OT:
Love today’s quote. So old and so apropos. You can even find apropos quotes from Cicero re: gov’t debt, finance and taxes btw. Despite what people think it will always be true that what has been done will be done again and there really is nothing new under the sun.
June 22nd, 2011 at 5:09 pm
And in advising the press corp, don’t overlook the headline editor. Market news headlines are easy to snark. For example, “Markets lifted as Vancouver Canucks lose Stanley Cup.”
June 22nd, 2011 at 7:11 pm
If anyone can tell me how we can create a few million jobs without racking up more unpayable debt (short of invading another country), I’d LOVE to hear it.
June 22nd, 2011 at 7:22 pm
Looking back, I would say the focus of the day was the illegal alien NYT, WAPO, and Huffington post writer.
Just doing the jobs Americans don’t want to do….
June 22nd, 2011 at 7:44 pm
“…To the press corps: Inflation was not then — and is not now — our most pressing issue. The labor market — unemployment and jobs (and how we’re going to create them) — is. Please focus your attention on that, at least until Kim Kardashian or Snooki does something noteworthy and you have to move on. Thank you…”
(press corps:) Please focus your attention on that, at least until Kim Kardashian or Snooki does something noteworthy and you have to move on. Thank you…”
~~~
will try this one.. “On Honest Reporting…
“The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer the truth than he whose mind is filled with errors and falsehood.”
–Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Norvell, June 11, 1807.
http://www.trettel.com/ccrc/quotes/Quotes1997/quotes970921.html
again.
~~~
or, differently, for those those that haven’t bothered w. http://www.rif.org/
the “Press”, whatever you think of it, is, largely, paid to Lie to You.
~~~
or, more broadly, try to remember, “Appearances are meant to Deceive.”
June 22nd, 2011 at 7:48 pm
“…I’d LOVE to hear it…”
MayorQ..,
one EZ stroke? try a U$D 10 tariff on Imported Oil.
(an Eagle should do it..)
http://search.yippy.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&v%3Aproject=clusty&query=U.S.+Monetary+History+Eagle
June 22nd, 2011 at 7:51 pm
w/ mention of yon’ QOTD, the QOTD..”"When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes… Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.” -Napoleon Bonaparte, 1815
just, to note, in addition, the QOTD ‘scrolls’ away, with Time, and does not stay ‘static’–with the Page it was, originally, viewed on..
June 22nd, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Maybe the Fed’s not actually supposed to be involved in central economic planning? Maybe its job is supposed to be controlling inflation?
June 23rd, 2011 at 1:18 am
Love wordle – I would recommend playing around with the advanced features sometime. Combined with a little Excel footwork it can get quite fun!
Anyways, I would recommend always using “all words lower case” in the language options as it gives a more accurate count of topic mentions by combining such things as “Conference” and “conference”. Alas wordle does not seem to aggregate conjugates of verbs into their infinitives nor plural and singular nouns. I guess there really is no such thing as a free lunch.
Anyways, just my OT two cents.
June 23rd, 2011 at 11:18 am
“austerity” should be bigger