Schizo Journalism: Reporting the Financial Crisis

On Monday, November 28, The New York Times simultaneously reports in separate stories that (a) Euro zone leaders are discussing a deal for stricter budget rules to alleviate the sovereign debt crisis, and (b) the end is nigh for the Euro if the same leaders can’t agree on a solution. Not to worry, though. The Dow Jones, which experienced its worst Thanksgiving Week since 1932, bounced back on Monday, taking heart from shoppers who drove Black Friday’s sale of Christmas trinkets to record levels.

Confused yet? So are some financial writers and many of their followers. Welcome to the economy’s version of The Snake Pit, the classic Olivia de Havilland movie about a woman who finds herself in a mental asylum and can’t remember how she got there. The only sane response for financial journalists is to embrace the new bipolar school of reporting: Schizo Journalism. Very similar to Hunter Thompson’s infamous Gonzo Journalism — you witness constantly alternating versions of reality — the main difference being you don’t need drugs. Hopefully some of the more pessimistic hallucinatory scrawls I’m reading about potential global economic collapse are just that — the illusions of mad men.

At times like this, some take inspiration from prayer. Others carp that prayer is just a form of talking to yourself. Beats me. Reality is what fires me up. I like:

1. Nassim Taleb. The Black Swan author ignores up-to-the-minute financial reporting. To him it’s all noise. All Taleb focuses on: the broader trends behind the news. That approach makes sense to strategic PR, as well.

2. Matt Ridley. The man behind The Rational Optimist has been rightly called out on some points, e.g., his direct involvement in a venture leading to the biggest run on a British bank since 1878. All the same, Ridley is correct that brilliant creations/inventions/solutions to problems come completely out of the blue, making conventional approaches look silly.

3. Technology. The tech sector has its bubbles. But putting aside the occasional froth, tech is about things irrefutable — science, engineering, numbers and reason. Tech is relentless, as is everything it spawns, from automation to productivity and incredible new horizons. The same may be said of those aligned with technology. Warren Buffett gets tech now. That story alone outweighs all the back-and-forth, up-and-down reporting on economics, debt and financial crises flooding the media now.

Jim Crawford is the president and founder of Crawford PR and the author of Black Box Blog, where he offers hard-earned perspective on public relations for the tech and telecom industries.

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