Media trumps up bad economic news

I sell large, expensive equipment used in the printing industry for a living.

As of late, getting companies to part with six-digit figures has been tough as I continually hear "We are waiting to see what happens," or "We are not sure what the future holds right now so we need to put this on hold."

As a salesman, these responses drive me crazy as the fact is none of us ever know what the future holds.

What these potential customers are referring to, however, is that they are waiting for some good news regarding the economy.

I can only hope they are willing to dig deep into the numerous sources available for information these days. If they are only counting on the traditional news sources, they are going to be waiting a very long time in their quest of good news.

You hear many different figures when listening to economists. They use these facts and figures to try to make sense of what is happening.

Frankly, I don't know what most of these items even mean, but I do know that if "consumer confidence" is way down and people are afraid to spend money on anything, it has a disastrous effect on everything.

I read where a recession is described as two consecutive quarters that show a loss. The fact is, we have yet to have one quarter that shows this yet the mainstream media continues to do its best to convince all of us that we are in a recession.

I understand bad news sells better than good news and that there are many in the media who would want to make things look as bad as possible while there is an unpopular president in office with elections coming up.

I am wondering, however, what some of these media types' thoughts are on reporting the truth once in awhile.

Marc Thomsen

Elk Grove Village