Optimism? How Dare You!
I’m sick of the negative media. For months I’ve been convinced that if, instead of going for sensational headlines of doom, the press were just a little more optimistic – balanced even – then the financial markets would probably sort themselves out. Even though that’s probably a bit too optimistic, having spoken to a wide range of business analysts in the last few months on the subject, I’m firmly convinced that even if reporting good news wouldn’t help, reporting all this exaggerated bad news is certainly making things worse.
Sadly, it’s not just the news-hounds who hate people having a good attitude. Baroness Shriti Vadera has been publicly shamed today for daring to voice optimism in this current economic climate. According to the Tories (who I supposedly support), saying “I am seeing a few green shoots” demonstrates how out of touch and insensitive she is…
The trouble is, no-one wants to admit the question that this was in response to. According to Sky News, the question asked was when would we be seeing green shoots – so the words themselves were put in her mouth by the reporter. No-one seems to want to discuss that…
Not only that, but it’s true. As I was driving home today, Radio 2 was talking about the thousands of new jobs – a little research finds that both Tesco and Sainbury’s are looking to expand into new stores, creating over 10,000 new jobs between them. That’s surely a green shoot?
The best comment about it I’ve heard was that Norman Lamont said this “at the height of the last depression”. So… that’d be just as it was turning around then?
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