It’s the latest scare tactic in the bailout propaganda war.
“$1.2 trillion in market value was lost in yesterday’s trading.”
Every newspaper writer and TV talking head you see who makes this point today is an economic illiterate who doesn’t understand basic concepts like market capitalization.
Worse still are the newspapers, pundits, pols, and talking heads are saying “That’s less than the bailout would have cost!”
I don’t use these words lightly: You must be some special kind of stupid to equate market cap with government expenditures.
Update: Also, what Nick Gillespie at Reason said.
Are journalists, politicians, analysts, et al. really so retarded that they insist on leading all stories about yesterday’s Dow with a patently useless measure?
Somehow “Dow absorbs 17th-biggest percentage drop in its history” just doesn’t pack the same wallop, does it? More here.
‘Are journalists, politicians, analysts, et al. really so retarded that they insist on leading all stories about yesterday’s Dow with a patently useless measure?”
yes
its the same reason why they will report about a 700+ point drop without putting it into context instead of saying it was a 7% drop when we’ve had far worse drops percentage wise.
and besides no one loses until they sell the stock. if you hold without selling you haven’t lost anything. you still own the stock , the market has jumped determined it is worth less.