I remember when the stock market crashed in 1987. I had to inform a 16-year-old that 1987 wasn’t “a long time ago” the other day, but that’s another story. So, in 1987 after a crash, who’d CNN talk to? Sam Walton. Makes sense. Sam Walton owned a lot of stock.
So, when the Dow dropped 390 points on Friday, who’d CNN talk to?
Billy Joel.
Yeah, that Billy Joel. The washed-up rock star. Here’s proof. Scroll down to the 10th paragraph. (At least they buried the quote. Somewhat.) The hook they hung it on? He recently got out of drug rehab. Yeah, that makes him an expert on finance. And you know what he said? He said he didn’t own much stock.
I thought I was reading The Onion!
Now, granted, at least the things Billy Joel said were semi-intelligent. But it wasn’t anything your next-door neighbor couldn’t have told you. People are scared. They have good reason to be scared. (He didn’t qualify what those reasons were.) He doesn’t trust big business because of the scandals.
In other words, Billy Joel is even less qualified to talk about the stock market than I am. At least I own some stock.
But if this is what they think is news, I sure hope I don’t own any AOL-Time Warner.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
Dave and I were talking about this on the phone last night, and it has since become obvious to me why CNN talked to Billy Joel: he said something negative. And the media loves negativity, especially in an election year. Yeah, yeah, “but the media isn’t biased”. Uh, huh. Ask the man who Dan Rather got fired for admitting that in a WSJ editorial.
I wonder if the media pundits will report the 90’s as the decade of greed that it was, or will they still reserve just the 80’s (and Republican administrations, of course) for that? A lot of politicians who have railing on Reagan/Bush for years are seeing their own arguments turning against them now. After all, these scandals started festering *before* Bush was elected. And let’s not forget that Clinton and crew refinanced the national debt using short-term bonds to make deficits look smaller, but hosing whoever took the office next. Even my college economics professor admitted that.
Taking all that into account, it’ll be interesting to see who’s pointing fingers come election time. As usual, I expect a lot of hypocrisy.