Editor’s Note
Back in the old days — that’s less than a decade and before there were such things as blogs and interactive conversations with readers — editors used to respond to their newspaper readers with an “editor’s note.” Sometimes it clarified a point made in a letter to the editor. Sometimes it offered a correction. Sometimes it was just a simple explanation. An editor’s note was a handful of sentences; maybe a four or five paragraphs. It was always a personal link between the editor and the reader. Only difference between it and today’s blog is the immediacy and the platform. Welcome to Editor’s Note.

Wall Street surprised at unemployment numbers

May 14th, 2009 at 08:41am Linda Grist Cunningham

How come Wall Street investors and so-called financial experts are so surprised at the latest unemployment numbers? Simple answer: They cannot add. They cannot read.

An Associated Press story Thursday morning reported that stock futures were down before opening bell because, tada, unemployment numbers just released were worse than expected.

Allow me a mini-rant: Worse than expected? Are the so-called experts/investors so clueless that they don’t know that all this bailout-auto-companies-down-the-tubes stuff is having a huge, negative impact on unemployment. Can they not read headlines? Can they not count? Shouldn’t they have already figured out — and factored in? How in the world could they be surprised?

I mean, for crying out loud, even the Register Star knows that with the local Chrysler plant shut down for two months, unemployment numbers are going to increase.

Advice to Wall Street: Factor in a lot more now. Because once that auto bankruptcy stuff ripples through to Main Street, the unemployment numbers are headed higher.

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2 Comments Add your own

  • 1. pundit  |  May 14th, 2009 at 7:32 pm

    You are exactly right. With auto plants shutting down, the suppliers, the parts manurfacturer’s, etc. are already starting to lay off workers or shut down completely themselves. There is definitely a disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street. Things are going to get worse before they ever get better. With unemployment increasing, purchasing power is going by the wayside and even more businesses will have to close. Why does Wall Street not understand this cycle?

  • 2. chris73456  |  May 16th, 2009 at 1:48 pm

    Whether anyone understands or not is moot–why in the world can\’ t it all be fixed. i don\’t pretend to have the answer but with all the brilliant people out there, we should find a way out of this……..

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