Whom should we trust?

With the country in recession, everyone turns to news media for relevant information about the economy so they know what to expect next. But how should a common man react to the contradiction he reads in the news? For instance, the retail sales are sliding backwards hinting at low consumer demands as budget is being slimmed down. Circuit City, Virgin Megastore, Steve & Barry’s are a few retail stores which have shut down. This development certainly means the business in US is hugely affected and continues to perform badly as far as the latest data is concerned. Retail spending hiked by 1.8 percent in January and dropped in February again.

Contrary to this, President Obama and his administration have been addressing the economic issues providing “glimmers of hope” to the country.

Time and again, Obama has touted economic progress along with a mention of the hard times ahead. So, how much does a 1.1 percent monthly drop in the retail sales reflect on the optimism of Obama or the current state of the economy? Very minimal, I would say. The drop in retail sales has to be gauged relatively. Economists have said that the drop witnessed during the season sale of late 2008, over 4.5 percent, has been was certainly alarming than early 2009.

Who is responsible for creating this vague picture of the current situation? Obama, for making a speech which talks of a promising economy ahead, thinking from a long-term perspective? Or the newspapers which put two and two together, and form a conclusion?

The retail sales are like the market these days, the fluctuations are obvious. While covering a story on these lines, one must understand the short-term effects as opposed to the long-term scenario.

On the similar lines, we have the unemployment rate of the country rising to 8.5 percent, which is a serious issue. Technology giants Google, Cisco and Yahoo have laid off thousands of employees collectively. And the trend is common in every mid-sized and small company as well. Then how believable is Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke when he said that there have been recent "tentative signs that the sharp decline in economic activity may be slowing,” in a recent speech? What are these “tentative signs.” Either Bernanke didn’t mention those or the newspapers decided to cut it off. This came from his speech to the Morehouse College.

From what the five rules of Obama’s new foundation for resurrecting the economy looks like, there’s still a long way to go for anyone to speculate or predict the current scenario.

The one, who suffers during these times, is the common man. As he has no idea what is happening. Reason being, hardcore news consumers trust the New York Times or Wall Street Journal as much as they trust Obama.