Cut the high falutin crap
Cut the high falutin crap
You don`t say!
Darius Nakhoonwala
The biggest news last week was the sharp drop in the stock market. Since millions more read the general newspapers than the business ones, I thought there would be some informed comment and opinion in the general papers. That, alas, was not the case.
Some newspapers, following what Manmohan Singh had said when he was the finance minister, decided not to lose any sleep over the market. How derelict can you get in doing your duty? Others, especially the ones that speak for the Opposition, used the opportunity to berate the government.
No one really tried to explain to the reader what had happened in terms that he or she would find useful in deciding what to do next. It was, verily, editorial writing of the worst kind I have seen.
The Hindu, after saying how much the Sensex had swung around said "in the context of the extreme intra-day volatility and the recent declining trends, it appeared manageable." Really? From whose point of view was it manageable?
It then fell back on the usual macro explanations. "…reacting increasingly to global developments...similar trends in other emerging markets… unsustainability of the United States` current account deficit… possibility of interest rates going up in the developed… blah, blah blah. Who amongst the readers of the general newspapers cares?
The Telegraph was not much better, Noting that the "Indian market is one of the worst affected" it left the reader high and dry. "…global markets across asset classes are all interconnected and a fall in any one market is rapidly passed on to the others." Ok Mr Smartypants, but what do I do?
"The trigger this time has been concerns about inflation and higher interest rates, which have led to fears that the global liquidity bubble is about to burst. The worry is that as interest rates go up, the "carry trade" — borrowing in cheap currencies such as the yen to fund asset buying — will unwind, leading to lower asset prices." So help me Gawd?
But to its credit it did manage to turn out a nice line to conclude the edit. "It is important to remember that all parties get dull when the supply of liquidity runs out."
The Pioneer went into the usual blame game. "Finance Minister P Chidambaram has aptly described it as a "manufactured crisis", but a larger question looms. Who cleared the language of the draft "circular" causing it to sound so monstrous...A high-level probe by SEBI is definitely called for because there may have been some forces at play (the needle of suspicion points towards the Bear lobby) that wanted investor confidence in the stock market system to wane." And so on and so forth.
How does the general reader care? All he or she wanted to know was whether the fall would continue or stop, whether to sell or hold and some warnings about the folly of borrowing to invest in stocks.
On those issues the worthy general papers were totally silent, content only to show off their knowledge of macroeconomics.
Subscribe To The Newsletter