Reactions to story from The Washington Post

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  Post Notices Media Role in Bubble Promotion

  http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press_archive?mo...
  57 days ago in Beat The Press | The American Prospect · Authority: 95

  It's better late than never, but Howard Kurtz, the Post's media columnist still misses some very fundamental points on the media's reporting on the economy. First, reporters should recognize that people employed by an industry lobby have an ax to grind. They are not neutral observers. This means that it was incredibly irresponsible to have David Lereah, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, as the Post's most widely cited expert on the housing market. Lereah was in the business of selling homes, not helping Post readers understand the economics of housing. The paper's reporters and editors should have known this. The second point is that it is reasonable to take into account experts' past performance when assessing the quality of their analysis. Specifically, it would have been reasonable to downgrade the analysis of any expert who failed to recognize the stock bubble and the inevitable recession that resulted from its collapse. If an economist was unable to recognize a $10 billion stock bubble, there was little reason to believe that they would be capable of detecting a bubble in the housing market. In other words, when assessing the situation in the housing market, the Post should not have relied almost exclusively on experts who were wrong about the most important economic development in the 90s. The Post seems to still be following this practice, as its economic reporting relies almost exclusively on experts who managed to overlook both the stock market bubble and the housing bubble. --Dean Baker
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  Can We Blame the Media? [The Panic Of '08]

  http://gawker.com/5059573/can-we-blame-the-media
  57 days ago in Gawker, Manhattan Media News and Gossip · Authority: 8,874

  Well yes, sure, of course we can. But how? It's easiest to just blame greedy bankers or something, because Wall Street assholes act the same way in good times and in bad, and we lionize them in good and castigate them in bad (also we deregulate them in
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  Handout/bailout passes, markets plunge even more

  http://thecrustysysarch.blogspot.com/2008/10/handoutbailout-...
  57 days ago in The Crusty Systems Architect · No authority yet

  Bound to happen. Why you ask? Because the markets weren't afraid of the correction. They were afraid of government's reaction to a healthy correction. It just goes to show you that Congress is really run by CNN hype-mongers.
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  The Dow Jones: Monday Morning Coming Down

  http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/news/the_dow_jones_mon...
  57 days ago in mediabistro.com: FishbowlNY · Authority: 757

  That was a fun week-end. Lot's of Sarah Palin and Tina Fey, and bailout packages that navigated the tricky waters of Congress all the way to the Oval Office where it was lickety-split signed by President Bush. However! A Monday morning reality check may
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  We Didn't Mention the Impending Financial Crisis Because You're too Dumb to Understand

  http://www.reason.com/blog/show/129289.html
  57 days ago in Hit & Run - Reason Magazine · Authority: 2,102

  Or something akin to that is the narrative forming in Howard Kurtz's Washington Post column on the role journalists played in the financial collapse. The response from new WaPo chief Marcus Brauchli is but one gem of many, many awkward admissions of
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  "Why didn’t they see this coming?"

  http://blog.nodebtmortgage.com/rss/why-didnt-they-see-this-c...
  54 days ago in No Debt Mortgage · Authority: 1

  From the Sacramento Bee: Restrictions in a homeowner rescue plan proposed by Sen. John McCain would likely block thousands of struggling Sacramento-area borrowers from participating, analysts say…The proposal would exclude borrowers who used 100 percent financing during the housing boom and possibly all who received loans without documenting their incomes. It also prohibits investors. In the Sacramento area, such restrictions will rule out massive numbers of borrowers who need help, some said Wednesday. “I would say there’s not going to be a lot of homes in that basket,” said Scott Thompson, partner at Mortgage Resolution Services in Carmichael. From the Sacramento Bee: [I]t’s hard competing against the collapsing Dow, rising unemployment and a financial crisis that appears resistent to bailouts. Anxious consumers are increasingly tight-fisted, putting off purchases and staying away from stores. “People are just scared,” said Paul Atwal, a sales associate at Aquamarine Jewelers on Marconi Avenue. “They have money, but they don’t want to spend the big bucks. They say, ‘I may lose my job.’ “ … In a sign of tough times, he said, more people are coming in to sell their jewelry for scrap gold than buy it. From the Wall Street Journal: All of you who rent — a respectable American tradition — can look forward to buying more cheaply in the future. Take your time. The housing disaster-in-motion was widely reported, complete with warnings, before the crash. But every word fell on deaf ears, because bubbles are never about reason, cool calculation and courageous politicians willing to risk defeat. … To the extent that the bailout shores up existing home prices and its paper, it delays the inevitable. It does not assure the early return of buyers. From the Washington Post: [A]s news organizations chase exclusives about the Wall Street meltdown, they also are grappling with a troubling question: Why didn’t they see this coming? “We all failed,” says [Charlie] Gasparino, a former Wall Street Journal and Newsweek reporter. “What we didn’t understand was that this was building up. We all bear responsibility to a certain extent.” … [T]he business press never conveyed a real sense of alarm until institutions began to collapse…It is not easy for journalists to take on the masters of the financial universe, especially when the market is going up and everyone is happy…PBS’s David Brancaccio says that “we journalists have had a long history with accepting what the smart people hand down to us, especially on complicated stuff. . . . When I would cover these very issues about problems with regulation, problems with ‘is this a disaster waiting to happen?’ people would say: ‘Well, young man, you don’t have an MBA like I do. Trust us. We went to business school.’ “ … [J]ournalists are reluctant to target those who are guzzling the punch: the overstretched folks who bought houses they couldn’t afford and second homes they wanted to flip, all based on the presumption of endlessly rising prices.
• 

  10/09 Morning Report

  http://wednesdaysmuse.blogspot.com/2008/10/1009-morning-repo...
  54 days ago in MY WEEKLY THOUGHTS · Authority: 3

  Does anyone remember that 10 years ago, some experts were already predicting the financial crisis we are in today? A Fox News report shows that indeed they were. So why is everyone so suddenly surprised that it happened? (…maybe the media ignored it rather than make people worry about their credit levels…that conservatives were saying needed to be paid down rather than built up…which might
• 

  Trust us we went to business school

  http://thoughtsofnigel.blogspot.com/2008/10/trust-us-we-went...
  54 days ago in Thoughts of Nigel · Authority: 14

  The stakes are enormous in a fast-moving crisis where the traditional concern about journalists causing a run on the bank is hardly a theoretical danger. But as news organizations chase exclusives about the Wall Street meltdown, they also are grappling with a troubling question: Why didn't they see this coming? I am sure that there is going to be a lot more on this,I have reported on the rumblings of journalists before and the abdication of their fourth estate responsibilities when it came to checking on the financial institutions on both sides of the Atlantic. It is worth reading Howard Kurtz's piece published earlier this week in the Washington Post.He quotes PBS's David Brancaccio who says we journalists have had a long history with accepting what the smart people hand down to us, especially on complicated stuff. . . . When I would cover these very issues about problems with regulation, problems with 'is this a disaster waiting to happen?' people would say: 'Well, young man, you don't have an MBA like I do. Trust us. We went to business school.' "
• 

  Tell us, ‘Did media miss the financial crisis?’

  http://lansner.freedomblogging.com/2008/10/08/tell-us-did-me...
  55 days ago in Lansner on Real Estate - OCRegister.com · Authority: 1,050

  The media’s role in the financial crisis has come into question. • Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote: “The shaky house of financial cards that has come tumbling down was erected largely in public view: overextended investment banks, risky practices by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, exotic mortgage instruments that became part of a shadow banking system. But while these were conveyed in incremental stories — and a few whistle-blowing columns — the business press never conveyed a real sense of alarm until institutions began to collapse.” Read MORE HERE! • And U.S. News editor Brian Kelly wondered: “Yet it’s fair to ask if we, and our colleagues in the media, did enough soon enough. Lots of stories get written every week, but were we making it clear that something truly unusual was building? And what about reinforcing the common-sense notion that markets do not rise forever? Of course, if you give us the benefit of the doubt and think we hit the right notes, did any of the warnings even matter?” Read MORE HERE! We wondered what you thought. How did we do warning you of the risks in the economy? Give us a grade! A B C D F View Results And, more importantly, how can we betterhelp you understand what’s going on? Feel free to use the comments box to share your suggestions. Or you can email your thoughts to your blogger by CLICKING HERE! Market meltdown news … Fed grants AIG $37.8 billion loan McCain housing proposal: Easier said than done Fed works toward an agreement on Wachovia MULTIMEDIA: How the Fed works! Prez didn’t push for bailout so execs could get facials Credit expert: Fed rate cut won’t help consumers Markets yawn at Fed’s ’scary’ rate cut O.C. mortgage rates jump on Fed move 77 years ago, Herbert Hoover wrote … Debate: Meg Whitman, Warren Buffett to head U.S. Treasury? From our new Huntington Beach blog … Surf City places 2 ZIPs on U.S. priciest homes list 27% of Surf City home supply is ‘distressed’ A new way to stave off foreclosure

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