No matter how bad it gets, there are always experts out there willing to put an upbeat spin on the economy, and the media seems to have a bias in favor of positive economic news. In local news, “if it bleeds, it leads” is the defining rule, but when it comes to economic news, we always want to hear that things will be just fine.
Today the CNN webpage is running an Associated Press article with the headline “Economists see credit crisis nearing end,” a happy thought, indeed, but the first paragraph is much less cheery:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- First the good news: The worst of the painful housing slump and the credit crunch might come to an end this year. Now the bad: The economy will weaken further and unemployment will rise.
Like this passage, much of what follows in the article, based on a report from the National Association for Business Economics, is just as mixed. Again, the more optimistic view of the “credit crunch” is really a statement aimed at investors and business people hoping to find money to borrow. There is no “credit crunch” for everyday folks. Instead, there is a debt crunch, and the article predicts increasing unemployment and, to make matters worse, reports that economists are uncertainty about whether housing prices will hit bottom by the end of the year.
The real world for most consumers is hinted at in a paragraph added at the bottom of the article. CNN’s “ireport” team makes the following appeal:
Are you buried under a pile of debt and need help getting out? Did you recently manage to pull yourself out of debt and want to share your story? Tell us about your experience with debt and how the current credit crisis is affecting you. Send us your photos and videos, or email us to share your story.
Personal debt is still a hot story line because there is so much of it out there, but it would be nice to put a happy spin on a dismal circumstance. So please send us a few success stories.
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