I guess they think it’s too early to spend all their time on “horse race” speculation “journalism” so the ever eager to avoid actually conducting themselves like actual journalists have found themselves one of those shiny objects they love to obsess over.  (Without really informing the public mind you)  That of course is as the title indicates the appearance of noticeable inflation.  Those of us old enough to have been reaching or into adulthood back in the 1970s remember this is in fact something that can get out of hand.  So it is news.  But from where I sit, and with conservatives stirring up the coals and adding gasoline soaked wood to the fireplace journalists are starting to turn it into a “the fire exploded and the whole house is burning to the ground” type of narrative.  It is after all a whole lot easier to spout babble on camera or in print than dig into details of the new infrastructure bill or the Build Back Better Bill.  Hell, in the latter case they can fill news cycle after news cycle until next November about how, if as “those who shall not be named” succeed in their efforts to kill it be the death knell for our chances next November.  Speculation and offering opinions are a helluva lot easier than actually working at their craft!
For the record I’m not an economist.  I never studied it in school, and what I know I picked up from news from back when journalism was a very different profession and from a gal I had a long-term relationship with forty or so years ago.  Basically, my views are that of an average person who most folks have deemed pretty smart over the decades but for all the breadth of my knowledge on a variety of subjects when it comes to economics again I claim no particular expertise.  If you want to stop right now or take my opinions with grain of salt (if not the whole shaker) I understand.  For anyone who can cite their credentials and wants to take me to task go right ahead.  I’m a big boy and in over six decades have been knocked around (and worse) both figuratively and literally.
Let me start with a premise I’ve often stated before including in recent days.  While there are exceptions (and all too rare) generally speaking the profession of journalism has become even worse than the legendary Edward R. Murrow was worried about when he gave his famous “Wires and lights in a box” speech in 1958.   Not that top executives were benevolent and gave unfettered freedom to even icons of journalism to report factual, newsworthy stuff back then(and let the chips fall where they may) as Murrow’s getting shunted aside proved.  Still, the three major broadcast networks and major print publications (a concept younger people who were born into a world of cable and satellite as well as the internet to read news) actually took pride in the size and scope of their news divisions.  For the limited electronic media that once was the norm there was even some pride taken in the fact the news divisions were “Loss Leaders” meaning they spent more (often much more) than ad revenue for the broadcasts generated and had to be subsidized by the entertainment side of the house.  Those days are long gone.  News became entertainment and expected to generate profit (and lots of it) just like the other divisions.
As this happened, the long-term effort by conservatives to weaken public education had started to have the effect they desired and we were well into having the uneducated, non-discerning and worse non-curious about anything they didn’t already know and or believe combined with an ever shorter attention span and here we are.
Big name journalists that cover large national news beats/stories, the ones you see on TV whether they are the hosts of a given segment or on-air guests (that you frequently see a lot of – and sometimes even referred to as contributing editors or some other title), the “talent” are pretty much lazy and even eager to do anything, anything to avoid having to dig in and learn details about policy proposals or their impact, and then create an honest and informative segment that actually holds news consumer’s interest long enough to convey it.  As a result, even when major stories including matters that affect countless lives are going on they use any excuse they can to divert coverage.  Hurricane season is almost over and they are already mourning the months ahead where they can’t devote hour after hour to “breaking” news about a coming storm.  I use quotes because let’s face it – when they say the same stuff they were saying hours ago with NO (or virtually nothing significant) new information, or sometimes even the next freaking day I for one don’t consider that breaking.
Think about all the times something significant (and yes, a hurricane that’s going to come ashore is damned significant as are mass shootings, and various natural disasters) happens and you see endless hours of coverage of talking heads just talking without telling you anything new.  Or some famous person dies.  Not a real hero who earned coverage like Max Cleland (a personal hero I was lucky to have spent a little time with) but some celebrity.  Remember hours of empty chairs prior to Michael effing Jackson’s funeral?  I kept checking news channels for actual, you know news periodically and all there was was blather and shall we say less than compelling images.  More recently we had Tiger Wood’s crash out in California.  All that time devoted to overhead pictures of the same thing, with no actual news about what caused the crash, witnesses etc. but there was plenty of speculation about the crash and worse (as the commentary made clear) Wood’s future as a professional golfer and how golf, which was around for CENTURIES before Tiger came along and (yes, I know this is blasphemy!) and after he was off the circuit for extended periods there were still exciting tournaments and compelling stories for golf fans to follow.
But politics and political reporting has it’s own place in all this and if I’m wrong and there is a heaven and hell ole Satan will be delighted over Boyle’s Law effect heating up hell by stuffing a steady stream of journalists into it slower than he expands it.  Of course, one might credibly argue he messed up because things have already exploded!  (It you need a good laugh read this story about whether hell is endothermic or exothermic which cites Boyle’s Law)
Well, with the holidays approaching and stories already out there about the impact of inflation on Christmas shopping (whether for presents or food/goodies) the title image seemed appropriate.  Inflation is journalism’s shiny new object they can obsess over instead of digging into complex legislation, the insurrection and actual Members of Congress who aided and abetted and other stuff.  It’s a scary word.  Again, inflation on the scale we’ve seen in recent months is noteworthy BUT it’s much easier to scream the word, show empty shelves, or gas pumps (with their higher prices) than to dig into how and why it got to where it now is.  Such as those Trump Tariffs that for years jacked up prices on so many things for so long a new baseline was set.  One which, if corporate America were so inclined could without much effort create shortages of both labor and goods which in turn allows them and the tee vee talking heads to shake their heads and “tut tut” the Biden administration.
And big name journalists for the most part are happy to play their role in such a farce.  After all, it’s not just the corporate masters in the corner offices and board rooms that will fight tooth and nail to hang on to their goddamned tax cuts (even if it means feeding the Trump/GOP/MAGA monster additional steroids) but the “talent” as well.  Those people you see on TV, even the print folks who make regular appearances mostly are well into the income range of above 400k and therefore via all of Biden’s economic policies/plans would have to pay more taxes.  I for one find it all too easy to believe they collectively look at that and say “screw dat!”
So, in my mind every time I hear/read (and it’s way too often now) the word inflation my mind immediately jumps to that memorable moment when the cry SQUIRREL! happens in Christmas vacation.  Most (overwhelmingly so) national journalists are financially fat and happy.  And LAZY and GREEDY.  For them the house and decorations being trashed by the dog chasing the squirrel are no big deal.  THEY can afford a suite at a classy hotel with amenities you and I can only dream of and it won’t put a dent in their finances.
So if my lack of formal economics education/training experience causes you to take my opinions with a grain of salt, I only ask you to consider that last part when viewing what you see and hear from “journalists” on the subject too.
(Oh, and for any conservatives who might have read this and are already thinking about how to take me to task let me remind you of something.  You give Reagan credit for taming the inflation of the 1970s, but it was Paul Volker’s stewardship at the Federal Reserve that did the job.  And Volker was put in place by none other than President JIMMY CARTER!  Not Reagan. It was just another example of Reagan taking credit – release of the hostages in Iran, building a better and more modern Navy and other improvements to the Armed Forces for example – for something that Carter set in motion.)
you have an entertaining writing style. now all you need is a decent editor.
Agreed. I have enjoyed Mr. Elliott’s comments and was glad to see him writing for Politizoom. He has astute, logical observations that sometimes get lost in his sentences. I look forward reading more of his opinions.
Believe me when I tell you better writers than me (including on this very site) have counseled me on how to make my stuff more readable, hold people’s interest etc. and I freely acknowledge the reason they are far more widely read and admired than I am is that they have a gift I lack. They are as smart or smarter than I am and also have an inner teacher/academic but they are far better in overcoming their inner professor – and getting & keeping the attention of readers.
I’ve tried, and I think those who have tried to guide me in writing articles that are more “reader friendly” would say I’ve done so albeit without success (as they’ve told me) but there’s a lot I’ve written and never posted here or on the site that originally got me into active participation in political blogs.
The reason is that when I take something I’ve written, sometimes with hours of effort (and sometimes days) that I believe is important to say AND that is fully informative and provides supporting information it’s long. And even I know the majority will find it boring or at least too long.
When I start cutting out chunks and altering the prose to be less formal sounding (like some textbook – I freely admit my style is closer to that or some journal much of the time) and try to punch it up it flat out sucks. At least to me. Sometimes when I’ve gone ahead and posted something here or elsewhere that is more in the style people seem to want it has sort of worked and sometimes not. Either way, I have felt like a sellout.
Being a Jimmy Buffett fan for damn near fifty years I’m reminded of part of the lyrics to a song from A1A’s Makin Music For Money
He said that people only buy the love songs.
Rock and roll is not too long
He said son you got to be commercial
If you want to turn the people on.
And I said turning on the people
Now that’s a beautiful place to be
But if I spend my time makin’ memorable rhyme
Well who’s gonna turn on me?
I know there’s a way to do both. I just don’t happen to be one of those to whom the ability to do so comes easily and given life’s other challenges more often than not I don’t find it worth the effort to try. Or at least try all that hard. If I’ve spent a couple of hours conceiving, outlining and writing something (and as I said it’s sometimes been far more than a couple of hours) I’m not inclined to spend even more time trying to turn it into what seems to work for the average reader. As I’ve noted, I’ve done exactly that in the past year and a half to two years and far more often than not it’s still fallen flat.
I won’t give up trying to utilize the advice those who had better things to do including their own writing have given me. But sometimes I feel like saying something and if I spend as much or more time tailoring what I originally write to reader’s preferences only to have it fall flat it just doesn’t seem worth it.
As I think about it I’ve spent a considerable amount of time whining like a kid. And I do in fact appreciate feedback even when it stings some. But sometimes I feel the need to push back. People can agree or not on whether I’m pompous and full of shit. Hell, I’m no different than most people by which I mean sometimes (maybe too often even) I am just that.
With that I’ll shut up without going into a writer’s version of the opening part of Hamlet’s skull speech although come to think of it I’ve kinda somewhat done so without using the style of language of the play.