We're Back, Baby!

The segment on Good Morning America began with the obligatory shot of the trading floor on the New York Stock Exchange, and a breathless voice over about the surging Dow Jones Industrial Average, now above 11,000 points for the first time in more than a year. “U.S. Economy on the Mend” read the caption.

If you reside in the real world of work, wages and debt, mainstream media coverage of the economy never ceases to amuse. The network one watches doesn’t make a difference because they all report the same way, with the stock market portrayed as the Be All, End All, harbinger of the U.S. economy. If the market is up it must mean that the economy is sound. The corporate frame around the story is fitted so tight that it makes the report virtually meaningless.

The surging Dow’s impact on consumers follows the rosy stock report. No mention of jobs or wages, just a straight leap to a prediction of consumer behavior, whether or not more homes and cars will be sold, now that the economy is vibrating again and our woes are behind us. Break out the champagne, in short, because happy days are here again.

Except happy days are not here again, at least not on Elm Street and Main Street and Patriot Avenue – no, on those streets, and hundreds more like them, a hundred or a thousand miles from Wall Street -- jobs are still scarce and homes are still being foreclosed, many sit empty, and broken dreams lay strewn in the street like autumn leaves; city and state governments are broke and cutting services to the poor, leaving streets in disrepair, furloughing employees and letting school teachers go -- though there’s no mention of these cold truths from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS or CNN. The networks have adopted the feel good narrative and facts aren’t allowed to interfere. Say it with us, America: happy days are here again. America is back!

So, how’re things on your street? When was your last pay increase? How’re you making out with the rent or mortgage, food and fuel costs, college tuition, your IRA, insurance premiums, doctor bills, car payments and other household expenses? You feeling optimistic, now that the Dow is above 11,000? Does that piece of news lift your spirits and fill you with hope?

I didn’t think so. We live in the real world.