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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (80853)	5/18/2000 10:29:00 AM
From: Dennis O'Bell	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

I don't think the problem is confined to market news, it's really the entire news media in the US that's an insult to anybody's intelligence. I personally virtually never watch TV here in the US anyway, but the problem was really brought home to me in working overseas and not paying any attention to what goes on in the US. When I came back after a few years, it was hard to express how moronic the stuff in the media appeared here. I think that even people who are critical of the media here may not realize just how awful it is if they do pay any daily attention. I'm really serious, if someone is even passively exposed to this stuff, even if they pay no real attention, the impact of how bad it is is a lot less striking!

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (80853)	5/18/2000 10:47:00 AM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

"Jobless Rate Hits 30-Year Low, 3.9%" John M. Berry Washington Post, May 6, 2000, page A1 "The Jobless Rate Declines to 3.9%; Lowest Since 1970" Louis Uchitelle New York Times, May 6, 2000, page A1 These articles report on the Labor Department's release of employment data for the month of April. This data showed the unemployment rate falling to its lowest level in more than 30 years. Both articles include references to the economy's recent strong rate of productivity growth. It is worth noting that the measure of hours worked in the first quarter was revised upward in this report. This raised the rate of growth of hours worked from the fourth quarter of 1999 to the first quarter of 2000 by approximately 0.3 percentage points. This increase in the rate of growth of hours worked lowers the rate of productivity growth by approximately the same amount. If there are no other changes to the data, this implies that productivity growth for the first quarter will be revised downward by approximately 0.3 percentage points, to 2.1 percent. While quarterly productivity numbers are extremely erratic, and this is still a respectable rate of productivity growth, it is well below what many actors in financial markets have come to expect. Proponents of "new economy" theories may be surprised by a downward revision of this magnitude. fair.org