The business section of the December 13, 2012 Los Angeles Times, announces the ecstatic headline, "California real estate sales up 15% year over year, prices rise 19%
And yet, several paragraphs down the page, there seems to be profound disagreement.
That's right. The very same article ends up erasing what the headline of that article states.
How can this be?
It seems that a Mr. Dean Baker, co-director of the Center of Economic Policy in Washington, is quoted expressing grave doubt about the L.A. housing market, countering the optimistic "wisdom" of one Los Angeles Times business staff writer.
Baker is predicting "serious gyrations" and diagnosing a currently artificial home buying environment where "these markets are being driven by speculation".
Some people might say that it is a "quality problem" to contemplate the Los Angeles real estate market while the day's horrors are developing in the news of the 28 killings in a Connecticut grade school.
Obviously, the school killing eclipses the economy in its immediacy and tragedy.
Here's the thing. I think both headlines stand as extreme examples of where we are going as a country.
The killing tells us that we should be warned; that there is, in fact, a sickness being played out, and not just this time.
What is going on in this country that begins to explain the allure of mass killing and the actual enactment of this
fantasy?
On the business front, what is the truth about our economy and our local housing market?
Why the double-talk and transparent lies in the media?
What is truth and what are the lies?
Certainly, there is one connection between the two headlines.
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