The media thinks we’re stupid. Are we?

Today, CNN reported the following:  “The economy gained 192,000 jobs in the month, roughly in line with economists’ forecast of 190,000 jobs. Businesses added 222,000 jobs — their best hiring month since last April — while state and local governments cut 30,000 jobs.”

Just yesterday, CNN reported: “There were 368,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Feb. 26, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was down 20,000 from the week before, and the lowest since May 2008.”

You don’t need an HP12C to figure out that, if you combine these two data, the economy shed a net 176,000 jobs last month.  Yet, both headlines read as “Good” new.  In the first case CNN said, “UNEMPLOYMENT FALLS AGAIN”  In yesterday’s story the headline read: “JOBLESS CLAIMS FALL TO NEARLY 3-YEAR LOW”

The media has become an establishment tool, spewing the news they want us to hear in the way they want us to hear it.  By misleading us this way, consumer confidence rises on a false premise that everything is getting better.  The rising confidence will get consumers spending more which fuels the economy.  The savings rate in the U.S. is at its highest point in 10 years and it’s expected to continue upward as more boomers near retirement.  Boomers have seen their financial futures on the brink and are voraciously saving (and not spending) to avoid the disaster of the past three years.  But savings don’t help big business, they don’t even help the banks.  Banks want billion-dollar deals with major borrowers, investors and arbitrageurs.  In fact, the credit default swaps and other sketchy Wall Street innovations that lead to the taxpayer bailouts were designed to convert cash reserves, like the cash in bank savings accounts, into fungible securities that Wall Street could sell to investors and trade amongst themselves…remember Lehman Brothers?  Savings are for wimps.  Go buy a new car and a big screen TV and a new house.  That’s what Wall Street and the government wants.

The moral of this story is:  Don’t believe everything you read. And… if you want to know how scary Wall Street really is watch the recent Oscar-winning documentary, “Inside Job.”

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/savings/personal-savings-rate-could-soar-1.aspx