(no subject)

[rm]

Right. So for those of you who don't know part time job is doing media analysis on US politics and the banking and financial industries. It's been a rough week.

Right now, I'm working on data about the "collapse" of Canary Wharf.

That is, the inevitable financial real-estate mess as all its tenants go bankrupt. But really? I have to do this? And I can't drink coffee? Are you fucking serious?

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

When I finally have a moment to breathe, I really want to write about what I'm seeing.

I'm basically working with the WSJ, FT (US), Barrons, WashPost, NYT, LATimes so what I see is how media affects sentiment and how sentiment feeds the crisis, but what I also see is a decent aggregation of analyst commentary on it all, and it's just amazing to me the degree to which people see what they want to see -- including the analysts, where it's at least a conscious strategy.

And yeah, as a tax-payer, I think it sucks ass that any of my money is going to this bullshit, but I also think getting some real control over Fannie and Freddie was long overdue. I also think that letting AIG go down would have made things 5 times worse.

The real question is what's going to happen with Wachovia and WaMu. If they both go down I think we're going to see further unexpected cascades, through banks we thought had resolved their issues.

[lllvis.livejournal.com]

Wow. Ok, I'll very much look forward to when you have a chance to write about it all!

Being the nature of the beasts, I certainly don't mind oversight...but since money wields such influence I don't think we'll happily get to where we ought to be in that regard. I'm sure there are more dominoes to fall, and somewhere in here I'd like to think there are heads that should roll. But CEO's and what have you tend to have no (or exceptionally little) accountability, and it'd be a process protracted over decades I'm sure, and it shouldn't be.

I also tend to disagree with the media sentiments that we're in the throes of another Great Depression (which was worldwide, not just here), but lately it is looking like the vanguard for getting into one if we're not careful.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I also tend to disagree with the media sentiments that we're in the throes of another Great Depression (which was worldwide, not just here), but lately it is looking like the vanguard for getting into one if we're not careful.

This is what scares me Working with the media reflection of actual data shows the power of sentiment. Playing on LJ while I'm doing it and watching memes and postings shows me how sentiment works here. If I posted every piece of scary financial news I think people should know, and then every person on my friends list with over 200 friends reposted it, and we assume that trend continues across LJ, and that 90% of the people taking in the information don't know jack about economics, that process alone has the potential to create bank runs.

[lllvis.livejournal.com]

Yup. I had the same idea about 'creating bank runs' given the tone of the news I was hearing yesterday.

[jfargo.livejournal.com]

*nods* The ability to spread (mis)information through the power of our own personal medias, be they blogs, websites, email, or anything else, is amazing. Unfortunately, it seems that it can easily do more harm than good in situations such as these.

[sethg]

I once tried to explain to a co-worker how fractional-reserve currency works. She got an expression on her face not unlike a character in a horror story who is gradually realizing that no, the monsters are not just in her imagination.

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

When you have time to breathe, I will be quite interested in reading it.

I hadn't realized that your work for the Germans is basically my job, too. It's an interesting business right now, but at times I really really wish that I didn't acutely understand what was going wrong. (I would love to just be oblivious, but since I can't get that I'm hoping for just a dollop of blissful ignorance.)