If you read papers and watch some so called journalists on TV you have probably noticed how some companies apparently make high profits while others goes as crappy crap crap at the moment. Some companies’ show just a slight increase in profit and journalists (basket-cases as they are) say: “it was better then expected!” seemingly showing things are looking up. I never really understood this strange optimism. Normally you can show anything to journalists and they transform it into the worst thing imaginable. A storm blowing down some trees instantly becomes a “killer Hurricane!” because one of those trees almost fell 100yards from an old couple walking the dog. Some 16 year old having sex with a 20 year old she met online becomes a “victim” and journalists will not show the age of this “horrifying rapist paedophile old man”, but will say that the female was “underage” or “a teenager”. And, of course, they will interview some psychologist that got his degree at the cornflake university of fool&idiot, and he will claim that teenagers might possible likely maybe get some emotional scars from such an experience. This will make journalists throw up headlines like: “Emotional scared teen meet rapist online”. And this, of course, is another reason why we need government to regulate, tax and ban the Internet. But somehow this does not apply for the economy. It is the other way around; they are really trying to find the good news! Strange isn’t it?
In fact, even if a bunch of companies show good numbers and some of them really good ones, it is still very worrying that several other big and important companies is close to bankruptcy or showing horrifying numbers. In a modern economy the companies are either very in-twined with each other and/or with the banking system and/or with companies overseas. This means that in a small economy like, for instance, the Swedish one; even 2 or 3 big companies going bad is horrific news. That will have an impact on their trading partners, their subsidiaries and the local towns where they have factories and such. It will have an impact on unemployment (now close to 10% in Sweden), tax revenues and the consumption power overall. And since this means that in the next step others will suffer and created a further downturn in a domino effect one really need to be worried. So when Volvo, SonyEricsson, StoraEnso, SAAB, several big banks and many others show really horrid numbers, what do journalists put the main focus on? They show that Boliden (A gold-mining company) goes very well. No shit Sherlock! Ever wondered why? A couple of investment groups also go very well, nah? How come? Who could have predicted that scenario? Oh, wait… I did… on several occasions. Among other places: Read about that here
But the worst thing is that they show figures from certain companies to show some positivism. Like today the Swedish papers tell us that ABB that is showing a profit of $675 million compared to $975 million the same quarter last year. Firstly, in regards to such a big company, already $975 million is bad and secondly, how can falling profits be “good news”? Because some analysts that couldn’t find his own dick if you turned of the light missed by $100 million it is good news? Please…
But back to my initial notion. How come journalists don’t write about the same thing I do: that the apocalypse is coming, we are screwed beyond all comprehension and that the enemies are destroying our countries and future. That would make great headlines, and the statements are true. All the things I write about in this blog - that is meant to be serious - is backed by facts and real numbers and I’m not the only one. It's not only we “crazies” arguing that the greatest depression humankind ever seen is coming around the corner. There is lots of economists, statesmen and others saying the same thing. So why don’t our bellowed representatives of the news tell these stories? At least a little. They can always put in a disclaimer or bend the story as they always do. But no. They still ignore all of us that predicted this crisis, they still ignore interviewing the alternative voice, and they still don’t listen to reason. There are economist (partly myself included) that has predicted the latest year or two into the smallest details and keep being spot on, still they almost completely ignored. To me - having gone through a journalist education myself, and having dealt with journalists on several occasions - this is very strange. They should jump these bones.
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