On The Importance of Careful Selection of News Sources

You might hear tomorrow that the contraction of credit (read: a basic cause of The Great Recession) is over. The stock market will rise n points on this news, even though it is patently false.

Depending on what you included in your counting -government meddling in student loans or not- there was either more credit issued in the last couple of months, or less. If you count student loans which now (thanks to a healthcare insurance law) only come from the government along with typical bottomless demand for subsidized government benefits, there has been an increase in the amount of credit, and therefore the economy is expanding. If you understand that this is a novel way to count credit and exclude student loans, credit is contracting falling off a cliff.

If you want to know what is truly happening in the American and world economies, read Michael Shedlock.

Unfortunately, being an informed citizen takes time. A guy at work was very surprised when I told him incandescent light bulbs have been banned by Congress starting in 2012. He said he got sick of the news and stopped paying attention. Then this huge stupid thing caught him by surprise. Don't be caught by surprise by the nightly news. Seek out high quality news and information sources, and promote them as best you can. Note: this excludes the entirety of what comes across your television set. Being an informed citizen takes time and effort.

Meh. Who's getting voted off American Idol tonight?