The Media's Top 10 Economic Myths of 2008 (No.2)

Yet negativity abounded in 2008, outnumbering positive stories 6 to 1 according to BMI's recent study The Great Media Depression.

CNBC's "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer went further than most journalists actually warning that the country was in danger of "Great Depression, No. 2." On "Street Signs" Sept. 11 Cramer excitedly warned that unless the banking system was bailed out, a second Depression could be in the future.

 "It's obvious the bank system is falling apart," Cramer said. "Let's save it before it goes to zero." Two months later on Nov. 11, Cramer again cried for a bailout -- this time for General Motors.

Cramer responded to criticism saying, "I don't care– for the same reason that AIG was in the business of a criminal conspiracy – big deal," Cramer said. "It's like look – we got to bail them out. We have to. We have to keep the Great Depression off the table."

Ironically in December, Cramer chastised people using Great Depression warnings calling them "scare tactics."

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2. Welcome to 1929: Great Depression II

Media myth: The news media drew hundreds of parallels to the Depression, despite economic data that is not even close.

Originally published by the Business & Media Institute

According to network reports, America's finances are "like a house of cards." The media thought things were so bad that journalists on ABC, CBS and NBC hyped similarities to the Great Depression more than 70 times in the first six months of 2008. An additional tally found at least 157 more comparisons from July 1, 2008 to Oct. 27, 2008.

But that parallel doesn't hold up, particularly when looking at daily coverage of the stock market crash in 1929. The difference between how the 1929 and 2008 media handled a crisis was profound – with modern journalists hyping every event and their predecessors expressing calm optimism. A scholar of the Depression, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said Dec. 1 that there is "no comparison" between the two situations.

In actuality, the economic struggles of 2008 couldn't really compare to the Depression. At its peak, unemployment skyrocketed to more than 24 percent. Gross domestic product actually dropped four straight years – 1930-1933 – and took until 1941 to again pass 1929 levels. "It was the worst slump in history, and the most protracted," wrote Paul Johnson in the introduction to Murray Rothbard's book "America's Great Depression." "At one point 34 million men, women, and children were without any income at all," Johnson continued. [Click 'read more' to continue]

Film of the Year No. 2

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2. Lust, Caution

Wong is a student in Hong Kong in 1938. As her drama troupe becomes involved with the effort to resist the Japanese, Wong infiltrates the social circle of Mr Yee, a hated collaborator, intending to facilitate his assassination. The action shifts to occupied Shanghai, 1941, as Wong becomes Yee’s mistress. The conflict inherent in their dangerous, passionate relationship gives the film both its emotional core, and its title: Lust, Caution. The closer Wong gets to Yee, the more vital she becomes to the resistance – and the more difficult her deceit becomes.

Directed by Ang Lee, Lust, Caution is a brilliant, intense, and moving piece of cinema. It melds espionage, romance, noir and war into a seamless, epic whole that has rightly been hailed as his masterpiece. The acting is superb, the cinematography sumptuous, and the story astoundingly powerful. Most of the publicity surrounding the film may have centred on its sex scenes, but that is unfair. While they are undeniably explicit, and sometimes shocking, these scenes reveal far more than just naked flesh. Indeed, they say far more about Yee and Wong than simple dialogue ever could. Lust, Caution is a remarkable achievement. Watch the trailer here.

Blog Review 824

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We expect the Lord Chamberlain, the Home Secretary, the Minister for Promoting Virtue and Punishing Vice, to be calling for censorhip. But the Culture Secretary?

It doesn't seem to be a stimulus proposal, rather, an all time expansion of government.

Perhaps it would be better to simply do nothing?

Adam Smith and the labour theory of value.....that he didn't in fact have one.

Life really isn't inescapably political.

A style guide aid to those wanting to write for The Guardian.

And finally, excuse us, but we're off to polish our egos.

The Media's Top 10 Economic Myths of 2008 (No.3)

Equidex President Phillip Gotthelf pointed out on Bloomberg TV on Oct. 7, "I think that the commodities really outlived their, their useful rallies because they've exceeded the elasticity of the consumer."

 "And commodities are consumables, they're not investments. They're speculative equals sometimes, but they're certainly not investments."

According to Gotthelf, those commodities include oil, which he said was poised to go to $40 a barrel or lower in the wake of the global economic turmoil.

 "I'm somewhat amused. Goldman Sachs was forecasting $200 a barrel for oil," Gotthelf said. "I see that their forecasts are getting more and more conservative. I said $200 a barrel was ridiculous. Even $150 I thought was ridiculous. We were looking at $24 a barrel in 2004. Everybody is now making comparisons in the financial sector to the implosion of stocks in 2002, 2003 – the last stock recession. Why shouldn't we see oil return to $40, maybe even below $40 a barrel?"

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3. Oil prices will skyrocket to $200 a barrel, gas to $15.

Media myth: Journalists warned of super-high oil and gas prices, but then the bubble burst.

Originally published by the Business & Media Institute

Journalists predicted skyrocketing oil prices in 2008 up to $400 a barrel.

NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel warned on the July 1 "NBC Nightly News" an attack by Israel could send oil prices soaring – sending gas prices into territories never imagined.

 "I asked an oil analyst that very question," Engel said. "He said, 'The price of a barrel of oil: Name your price – $300-$400 a barrel.'"

What would oil at those levels mean? A June 11 Time magazine story by Robert Baer put the price of a gallon of gas at $12 if oil goes to $300 a barrel. In May, Management Information Services Senior Energy Advisor Robert Hirsch told CNBC's "Squawk Box" the oil at those prices could mean $15-a-gallon gas.

NBC "Nightly News" asked CNBC's Jim Cramer about those $12-15 predictions. Cramer said "I think that $12 isn't in the cards. I do see $5 to $6-a-gallon by end of the summer." But even that prediction turned out to be wrong. Gas prices peaked at $4.11 on July 11 and have since fallen to $1.68 according to AAA.

The news media didn't anticipate the end of the oil bubble with prices sinking from about $147 at its peak to around $45 Dec. 10.

But there were experts who disagreed. [Click 'read more' to continue]

On the fifth day of Christmas...

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My true love sent to me: five gold rings. It probably means the first five books of the Old Testament, but to me five rings means the Olympics, which are coming to London in 2012.

Well, they say that. But it's a typical government-led project, so who knows? The London bid for the games put the cost at £3,375m, but in March last year Tessa Jowell revealed that the cost had risen to £9,325m - a tripling of the costs in just a few months. Something of a black hole, which the hole-vaulting Culture Secretary explained as due to VAT, inflation, and a whopping £2,700m 'just in case things go wrong' fund (a figure larger than that the original estimate for building the entire Olympic Park). And that's unlikely to be the end of it, since officials are said to be working to a £12bn target. With the credit crunch, private financing and sponsorship deals now look shaky, and after Mumbai the cost of security has been ramped up, so taxpayers are likely to find the Olympics rather expensive.

Film of the Year No. 3

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3. Gomorrah

It’s not easy to summarize the plot of Gomorrah, mostly because there isn’t one. Rather than taking a narrative approach, the film simply follows a group of loosely connected characters around a grim Neapolitan estate ruled by the Camorra, the local mafia. Based on the 2006 non-fiction book by Roberto Savianno (who has been in police protection ever since), Gomorrah is a bleak, brutal film that pulls no punches and offers no easy answers. Indeed, such is the film’s commitment to realism that even Italian audiences needed subtitles to understand the heavy dialect it is filmed in.

If you sit down to watch Gomorrah expecting ‘the Italian Goodfellas’, you are going to be sorely disappointed. There are no characters to root for, and no compromises made for the sake of entertainment. And at no point in the film is it possible to vicariously enjoy the gangsterism being depicted. But that, surely, is as it should be. Real-life organized crime isn’t glamorous – it is a vile force that corrupts and destroys everything it touches. Gomorrah is a deeply powerful reminder of that. Watch the trailer here.

Blog Review 823

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Minister announces a direct attack on free speech and insists that it is not an attack upon free speech. Just don't expect us to cooperate.

This isn't a new idea but that doesn't stop it being a very good one.

A look at how the BBC created its editorial line on climate change. Not, you won't be surprised to hear, a pretty sight.

Sometimes it doesn't matter which decision you make: just that you do indeed make a decision. Dithering simply makes things worse.

A report from the front lines of the green generating revolution.

Labour's campaign song all the way back in 1997 was "Things Can Only Get Better". And so it goes.

And finally, these aren't the seven best criminal capers of 2008, for the best are the ones that have gone undiscovered. 

On the fourth day of Christmas...

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My true love sent to me: four calling (or colly) birds, which in A Partridge in a Pear Tree are said represent the four gospels or the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Well, my true love is now breaking the Animal Welfare Act 2006, which makes it illegal to sell wild animals. It also demands that animals are given a suitable environment, diet and housing.

Regulations proposed under the legislation tell pet owners not to feed their dogs chocolate or let their cats sit on the toaster. Although feeding your dog chocolate is not actually a criminal offence, it can be used in a court of law as evidence of your guilt on other charges, which can leave you open to a prison sentence of a fine of £20,000.

The Media's Top 10 Economic Myths of 2008 (No.4)

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4. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Media myth: A salmonella scare frightened everyone and upset one CNN anchor so much that he called for the impeachment of President Bush – but it turned out peppers were the culprit.

Originally published by the Business & Media Institute

CNN's Lou Dobbs, host of "Lou Dobbs Tonight," called for the impeachment of President George W. Bush on June 19, 2008 – but this wasn't about the Iraq war or some sort of atrocity. It was over tomatoes.

Dobbs placed the blame for the salmonella outbreak that had sickened 383 people by April 2008.

"You know, I have heard a lot of reasons over the years as to why George W. Bush should be impeached," Dobbs said. "For them to leave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in this state, its leadership in this sorry condition and to have no capacity apparently or will to protect the American consumer – that is alone to me sufficient reason to impeach a president who has made this agency possible and has ripped its guts out in its ability to protect the American consumer."

The media spread fear of tomatoes to the public. In the first four days of the scare – June 8 through June 12 – the three broadcast networks aired 20 stories hyping the salmonella outbreak and pointing the finger at tomatoes.

Ultimately, the misplaced blame cost the tomato industry at least $100 million according to an Associated Press story. The Food and Drug Administration later cleared tomatoes and found the true culprit of the Saint Paul salmonella outbreak: jalapeno or serrano peppers.

Film of the Year No. 4

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4. Changeling

Who would ever have thought that Clint Eastwood, once Hollywood’s drifter/cowboy/anti-hero par excellence, would also become one of America’s most celebrated directors? And yet his recent filmography – Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima – really says it all. He still appears to be improving with age though, since his latest effort, Changeling, is undoubtedly his best to date.

The (true) story centres on Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), a single-mother in 1920s Los Angeles who comes home from work one day to find her young son, Walter, has disappeared. Some months later the LAPD (seemingly mired in prohibition-era corruption) find a child and claim it is Collins’ son. It isn’t. But when Collins’ tries to tell the police that they turn against her, insisting she is mentally unstable and an unfit mother. But what happened to the real Walter? Can he be found before it is too late?

Changeling is flawless cinema, and it would be surprising if it did not feature heavily in 2009’s Oscars. Jolie is superb, and Eastwood’s classical style and mastery of tone and atmosphere makes Changeling reminiscent of Roman Polanski’s 1974 masterpiece Chinatown – high praise indeed. It may sound like mere melodrama, but the narrative shift that occurs part way through the film turns Changeling into something altogether darker and more disturbing. It’s still showing in cinemas, so be sure to catch it if you can. Watch the trailer here.