It's done. It's on the record and its (semi-?) permanent.
Let us summarize everything that has been learnt so far:
Journalists are complete fuckin' idiots when it comes to finance. Let's explore all the reasons:
- They are bound at the hip to their paycheck as are most humans. They serve the powerful advertising lobbies — in this case it would've been the Real Estate lobby. (On a related note, the NAR has its massive office nearest to the Senate entrance in DC and there are a ton of wonderful fancy restaurants there. One wonders why!)
- They are numerically illiterate and proud of it! They understand fuck-all about Statistics. They think that three anecdotes and two quotations consist an article.
- The entirely idiotic idea that one must give credence to the "opposing view". One can almost feel the headline: Earth is Round? Opinions Differ!
- They fail to understand the importance of self-interest when they seek quotations. Someone who benefits from a certain situation is guaranteed to be biased and will spin the situation in their favor and their "opinion" must be severely discounted if not ignored altogether. Which leads us to:
- Complete lack of critical thinking. English majors — what can one do? They are not the type to ask forceful follow-up questions which tend to be pretty obvious.
The most important point is there is no fix. Why would that be?
The reason is pretty clear.
Analytic, statistically-minded types with penetrating insight are much better served by doing the analysis and profiting from it not documenting it for other people with passive intellects that want to consume data not generate it.
There is smart financial media to be found. It's suitably obscure and it serves the author not to reveal since it acts as a form of IP (Intellectual Property.)
So the world will continue to spin as it always does but this blog will die a slow (passive) death.
It's been FUN though!
