Econo Politico Mix

The economy is not a soap opera. 

  Economics and politics are inseparable, but you wouldn't know it from mass media news coverage.
   As the election year starts, we can expect more and more emphasis on what the candidates say about themselves and about each other, with the poisonality of venom increasing as the weeks go by.
   The more they rant about their own strengths and their opponents' weaknesses, the less we hear about plans for governance, and much less than that about economics. The reality, however, is that politics has always been intertwined with economics, ever since the ancient Greeks coined the words.
   Initially, the term economics referred to how a household managed and used what was available. The term was then expanded to embrace the Greek "polis," which referred to a city-state. By the 19th Century, when the modern study of economics came into its own, the term used was "political economics." And in the mid-20th Century, high schools were teaching "home economics" to girls, while boys went to college to study "political economics." Fairness didn't enter into it. Fortunately, things have changed.
   However, academics and journalists soon split the latter term and began to treat politics and economics as separate and distinct fields.
   'T'ain't so, McGee.
   Unfortunately, far too many news reporters avoid writing about economics because they feel the topic is "too hard." Corruption and fraud in business is easy  to cover, of course, since the investigations are often done by prosecutors, who then feed the information to reporters. There are, of course, investigative journalists who do dig out corruption and fraud, and after the stories appear in print the legal beagles sniff out stuff to enhance their own reputations and record of convictions.
   These stories, however, are less about economics than they are about criminality. Writing about economics is no more difficult than writing about any other topic. Granted, the stories may not be as flashy or juicy as the entertainment and gossip quality of catching a prominent figure with his metaphorical pants down, but economics is no less important. In fact, it's more important, because the health of an economy in a metropolis, state or nation affects all citizens.
   Many reporters, moreover, mistake entertainment and gossip for importance, and take the easy road to covering a story. It's not that economics is more difficult, although it tends to be quieter. And part of the problem may be that classes in Economics 101 were, for many students, boring. The fault, therefore, lies with the academics, not with the students.
   In addition, the problem was perpetuated in newsrooms, where senior editors treated the business page as mostly a nuisance, whose main purpose was to mollify executives and retailers who wanted to see their names in print as they promoted other executives and announced their profitable sales figures. Moreover, too many publishers caved in to threats from major advertisers to pull their ads unless they got favorable coverage.
   In response, publishers instructed their senior editors not to cover certain industries or business fields, lest the newspaper lose revenue.
   It takes a strong-willed, successful publisher and editor to resist such pressure. Unfortunately, only major metro dailies are financially strong enough to do that, and even they sometimes yield to advertiser pressure.
   So that makes the business section, if there is one, an unwanted stepchild in the newsroom. Far too often, there is only one page devoted to local business, and that is usually slapped together by a general news editor who takes a few minutes to gather a stock market report and a couple of national stories from the newswire, and perhaps include a feature about a local business written by a general news reporter, send the layout to the general news copy desk where overworked copy editors zip headlines on the stories, and off goes the page to the press room while the reporters and editors return to the "real news" of crime, corruption and politics.
   The reality, however, is that all three of those categories are at root economic issues.
   Citizens turn to crime because they have no jobs, or are boxed out of "legitimate" opportunities by corrupt politicians or adverse social pressures.
   
   Economics is the study of how a home, business, city or nation uses whatever resources are available. Economics 101 teaches that these resources are Land, Labor, Capital and Entrepreneurial Skill. By definition, Land includes not only the terrain, but also minerals, water and forestry. Labor deals with people and how they work the Land resources. Capital means the machinery and tools invested in for Labor to work the Land. And Entrepreneurs are those who organize and supervise the other three.
   It ain't that hard, folks. All it takes is a little time and effort, and to realize that the national economy is not a soap opera.