facing reality in anz

I think allot of the conflict that occurs on the ANZ thread has at it's core the complete failure of mainstream economics reporters to tell the market whats really going on.

The economic media is failing to reflect economic reality. Folks here approach any realistic analysis as if the person is a drop out of Anthony Robbins positive thinking course. Folks still treat those that speak of the current economic reality as if they suffering an ongoing psychological depressive ailment or harbor secret resentments and agenda's against ANZ that taints their analysis.

This is partly due to the pitiful state of economic journalism in this country. Folks really believe that our Real Estate prices are sustainable because the media's pathological history is to write further and more elaborately contrived stories about scenarios where things get better. Similiarly they talk about the stimulus package as if it allow us to shelter from the global economic storm.

For the regular readers , no I didn't flunk out of Anthony Robbins and nor is the economy a glass is half full or empty topic. Reality in economics is pretty easy to measure, the numbers we have coming at us are surreal, any hope ANZ has of sidestepping this is pretty much based on fantasy thats fed to us by economists like ANZ's Saul Estlake and the RBA's Glen Stevens and the rest of the neo classical economist cult

To some extent they are still in the denial phase themselves, many of them have invested whole careers, even lifetimes devoted to their now failed theories , as the coming months unfold the reality of the situation will be fully realized, denial will become impossible.

Here is a great article by Alex Mitchell on the topic

http://newmatilda.com/2009/02/24/do-not

Note to economics writers: your beloved free market is dead. Now tell us the real story about the global financial crisis, writes Alex Mitchell.

For many years it was my conscientious belief that the worst practitioners in the media were celebrity reporters who did little more than rewrite press handouts supplied by agents for limelight-seeking B-grade actors and pop stars.

I’ve now revised my views and am convinced that the media’s bottom-feeders are the economics writers.

In so-called normal times, these erudite commentators wrote very little and not very often. Indeed, they rarely came to work and weren’t seen around newsrooms. They sat at home in their book-lined studies mousing their way through international websites looking for ideas for something to write about.

Having plagiarised a letter from The Economist, an editorial from the Washington Post, an article from the Far East Economic Review or the in-house report from a leading investment bank, they appeared in print, glowing with wisdom.

But when the world economy turned nasty, these charlatans and hucksters were quickly unmasked and regular reporters started asking each other: has that bald-headed egomaniac on three times my salary got any clothes on or not? Answer: No!…

Are the economics writers warning of these implicit dangers? No, they’re hopelessly at sea giving risible interviews to the ABC trying to convince listeners that their beloved free market will be resuscitated, if not this year then next.