Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Bad Journalism

Among the misleading stories about the impact of the Drought, this new one from Bloomberg might be the worst. Once again a reporter seems oblivious to the foreclosure crisis and the real recession.

No mention is made of the thousands of jobs lost in construction, real estate, government, restaurants, and more due to the foreclosure crisis, 50% drop in local real estate values, etc.; all of which occurred before and that dwarf any farm impact. The struggles of these local businesses are all blamed on reduced income of farm laborers: espresso sales, a boutique women's clothing store, and wine shop.

There is a bit of news here. Professor Howitt at UC-Davis has reduced his forecast of drought job losses. When this hits (and it hasn't yet), I would only note that these impacts are a small fraction of the impacts of foreclosures on the Valley. The loss of construction jobs alone has been larger, not to mention the impact of 50%+ decreases in home values on wine shops, espresso sales and the like.

No comments:

Post a Comment