Stranger Than Fiction: Stock Market and The Drudge Report

I sometimes run a stock ticker on my computer at work, and I've got to say, I could never work in a job that was linked to the stock market. It's just crazy. The thing can rise and fall hundreds of points in minutes. It's completely baffling to me.

Once in a while, I'll click over to CNBC.com, to see what they're saying about it. And they'll say things like "Stocks Rally on Bank Projections" while the DOW is falling precipitously. Then they'll say, "Stocks Dive on Bank Worries" as the DOW is climbing like a roller coaster lift. The headline is often the opposite of what is happening.

Yesterday, I went to the right-wing Drudge Report, and saw a graph of the diving DOW, along with the headline, "Was it something he said?" It was implying that President Obama's speech had caused a drop in the stock market. But as the day progressed, the stock market rebounded. I kept checking, and never found Drudge changing his tune. But apparently, he did. Then, when the market fell again, he changed it back. Honestly, I don't see how either CNBC or Drudge can assign blame or credit for anything as it pertains to the stock market. It changes so fast and so arbitrarily, how could anybody know?

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Evolution Of A Headline: Drudge Blames Obama For Market Declines, Accidentally Gives Him Credit For Rally

Matt Yglesias wrote recently, “Not only is it obviously stupid for political commentators to be assessing the quality of economic policy by tracking the ups-and-downs of the stock market but the fact that the commentators who want to do this keep wanting to specifically use the Dow Jones Industrial Average just highlights their ignorance. Not only is there no particular significance to the stock market as such, but there’s no particular significance to this index.”

Read more at: Think Progress