The Conference Board announced its latest index today. The index fell to its lowest point in nearly two years. What significance does this index have? I have been watching this index for over 20 years and have always had doubts about how to interpret it. When you look at today’s economy and particularly before the Hurricanes, the unemployment rate was under 5.00%, housing starts were booming, corporate liquidity was enormous and even tax revenues were up due to the booming economy. After the hurricanes, it is expected that this natural disaster would have a negative influence on consumers. One problem is that the reporting of economic data by the news media is next to awful. I have read headlines with negative connotations only to see that the text of the article was positive. I have E-mailed eonomic writers of several newspapers pointing out that maybe there might some errors in their articles but none have answered me to challenge my premise. It appears that many economic writers do not want to publish positive news. Perhaps their editorial staffs tell them to only look for negative presentations. I am certain that most of writers are journalism majors and I wonder how much background they have in business and economics. Not only are economic articles in question in the daily news but articles on politics, historical data and events and even sports. Who can we believe? Unfortunately, the news now is being packaged like a product and is sent to us as if it were objective when it is actually following an agenda and by definition, omits other interpretations and viewpoints that might be quite relevant. Caveat Emptor is the guide for the consumer of current news and it is unfortunate.

Gary E. Marsella

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