Tuesday, April 8, 2008

That Hollow Laugh. Can You Hear It?

Into the breach, as requested by brad. Time is short, but we did notice this:

Now, some of my readers are arguing that we journalists have a duty to give the public what they don't particularly want. Okay, well, you really should know how to calculate a bond duration; if you have fixed income investments, as you should when you're near retirement, you'll want to know the weighted average maturity in order to balance your income across time. The mathematics for simple instruments is fairly easy; I can explain it in perhaps ten minutes of moderately involved reading, then you'll want to spend perhaps an hour or so doing excercises [sic]at home to make sure you've really nailed it. Ready?

That's ridiculous. You didn't come here to be bored by some formula you can look up if you need it; you're here to talk about foreign policy!

. . . oh hear that hollow laugh. That, my friends, is the sound of an eager young journalist's soul dying just a little bit every day.
The point is, one can look up all that economic crap, or even hire a broker or investment adviser or someone else who knows this crap to do it for you, as many people w/ "fixed income investments" nearing retirement & hoping for the sweet surcease of death after too long being worked like a dog do. There's not really anywhere to go for John Yoo information besides the blog-o-sphere, & most people don't head there until the MSM has made them aware of Yoo & his memos, or whatever other horror is being perpetrated in their name, in an alleged democracy. Perhaps every single American should be placed on trial in The Hague, on the basis that the citizenry wasn't paying attention to the orders being followed. Then let's see what the "eager young journalist" has to say!

This in the context of her haranguing G. Greenwald:
Greenwald error number two: I don't cover politics; I cover economic policy.
Please. All is political, especially economics. And I'll bet you more readers read the cooking tips than wade through the boring & obscure economic items. I know I certainly do.

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