How responsible is the media for the recession?

[Aabidano]

The markets stink, people are saving money due to fears about the economy, not that it'll be worth much after inflation really starts. All creating a feedback loop that's just making things worse. The US consumer isn't propping up the world economy with their credit cards.

How much responsibility does the media have for the current recession? What would things be like right now if they had anything else to report on?

Like maybe 2 wars (OMG, those are still going on!!), etc..

[Leonaerd]

The broader issue in play is that the media is controlled by the same financial elite that purposefully caused the financial mess in the first place. Actual journalistic reporting, opposed to doomsday reports designed to grip viewers with fear, could cause so much good. The media is currently being used as a tool to spur fear, and in the end, increase high-interest lending from the central bank. It's obvious to the powerless citizen that our problems are not being handled appropriately. Indeed, how fearful we should be when the most obvious solutions are overlooked, politics is as usual as usual gets, and intelligence takes a back seat to greed.

More people should watch Zeitgeist, a documentary which, like Atlas Shrugged, becomes more powerful with time. I wonder how many dollars there will be for every amero.

[Sueven]

The media certainly doesn't help-- and may exacerbate problems at some times-- but is not fundamentally responsible. This is not a mental or a psychological recession. It's a real recession based on real economic problems. Media coverage can shape our reaction to the crisis, but it did not cause and it cannot eliminate the economic issues that brought us here.

And Atlas Shrugged is pretty much retarded, just like its author.

[Leonaerd]

I don't mean to imply the media is fundamentally responsible, just that they are succeeding in perpetuating the problems put into place by the pithy pissants possessing power.

[miir]

Bonus points for alliteration...



Bravo!

[Leonaerd]

Piss!

[Wulfran]

The media certainly doesn't help-- and may exacerbate problems at some times-- but is not fundamentally responsible. This is not a mental or a psychological recession. It's a real recession based on real economic problems. Media coverage can shape our reaction to the crisis, but it did not cause and it cannot eliminate the economic issues that brought us here.

And Atlas Shrugged is pretty much retarded, just like its author.

In some ways I disagree and will point to one of the economic bad boys of the past couple years: the price of oil. All over the western world we were bemoaning the high price of oil and its resultant high gasoline and heating oil prices. We were paying a ridiculous premium because of ignorance in the market about the primary sources of energy and the security of the supply, among the public and futures speculators (and the odd interuption in refining capacity due to things like Katrina didn't help matters either). The media helped perpetuate the myth of middle eastern oil dependence when in reality very little of that oil comes to North America. In some ways it wasn't completely bad because this misinformation and scaremongering has acted as a catalyst in making people aware of alternative (and cleaner) energy sources but the economic basis for the high price of oil mysteriously vanished and it fell by over half when the credit crunch hit. People stopped worrying about the mythical effects of political instabilities in the Middle East and more about the financial situation at home, and presto!

I also believe the psychological dimension to this is reflected in consumer confidence and investor confidence which does in turn create a feedback loop (or loops) as Aabidano suggested: consumers are worried about their sources of income and thus cut their own spending which hurts manufacturers/retailers, forcing them in some cases into layoffs; investors (including banks) aren't sure what companies are worth what they were and this reaction couple with the low consumer confidence cutting into profits keeps downward pressure on the markets because no one is sure when it will turn around. I'm not advocating that we need to go on spending sprees, because I am a firm believer in living within your means and I think there has been a tendancy to overspend with many of us (and its reflected in our gov'ts and their debt loads whether we like to admit it or not).

Sometimes I can't help but laugh because for all the education in the business world, so much of the investment/business community is a bunch of conformist sheep, afraid to think for themselves or make value judgements and stand on their own... then they try and justify their 6/7 figure bonuses based on the wieght of decisions they were forced to make ...