I probably know less than nothing about economics, that is, even what I think I know is probably wrong - negative knowledge.
Still, for some reason it interests me a little bit and I pay attention to the reporting, mostly because the way news sources talk about economics is interesting.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a number and I do like numbers, though I much prefer baseball statistics. Today that number went over 13,000 thanks to a big gain yesterday and this morning.
I also noticed that the main economic news this morning was that economic growth slowed in the second quarter. There was still growth, but not as much as in the previous two quarters.
Here is the part that makes no sense to me. Based on long, amateurish observation of economic reporting, I am sure that if the if the Dow Jones Industrial Average was going down today, the "experts" and news reports would all be blaming it on this weak economic report. They would be using the nonsense term "big sell-off," which makes me want to shout "Hey nitwits, if somebody is selling, then somebody is buying, so the thing you call a big sell-off could just as easily be called a big buy-off."
I always marvel that when the Dow Jones Industrial Average goes down, the reporters always seem to know why - nervousness about the Greek debt, uneasiness about the Spanish housing market, political unrest in Libya, or Yemen, or Wisconsin. I always supect they are just making this stuff up, because the next day the Dow Jones Industiral Average goes right back up again, and surely things are not changing that rapidly.
The day that the Supreme Court upheld ACA the Dow Jones Industrial Average went down and all the experts blamed it on the harm the new law would do to businesses, but now, a month or so later, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is higher than it was then, and the ACA is still intact. So, I'm sure they were just making that up.
This may be my imagination, but they don't seem as quick to offer reasons why the Dow Jones Industrial Average goes up as they to offer reasons why it went down. Perhaps those are harder to make up.
Just rambling about something I know nothing about, sort of like Mitt talking about the lives of ordinary Americans. Have a nice weekend.