I’ve been a longtime viewer of the Nightly Business Report on PBS, which went on the air 30 years ago. In 1994, I visited the studio in Miami where it is broadcast, saw a show going out live and met some of the people who produced it. Of course, that was before TV programs had websites, and NBR now has an extensive one; with transcripts, special features, lots of video, statistics, investor education and blogs. Susie Gharib, one of the anchors, has an intriguing post on June 4th, The Recovery Alphabet. It’s an unusual take on the nature of the economic recovery (when it comes); in the shapes of the letters it would look like, based on her talks with economists. The four letters are L, U, V and W. The simplified scenarios: L-Shape of the recovery eventually after a sharp falloff of the economy followed by years of stagnation. Not likely, she says. U-The economy eventually bounces back after a dramatic drop, followed by gradually growing. V- A big gain follows a big drop. “Fat chance that will happen this time,” Gharib writes. W-Down, up, back down, then back up. She says this is the consensus view. Finally, no matter what letter ends up being the right one, she thinks it will be a couple of years to get back to “normal.” Gharib is half of a longtime anchor partnership with Paul Kangas, who has been rightly called, by the Detroit Free Press, “the Walter Cronkite of business broadcasting.” NBR recently announced that Kangas will leave his anchor position at the end of the year, but will stay active in the financial world. The economy may remain lousy for longer than we would like, but the Nightly Business Report at least helps us make sense of it.
Bruce Rosenstein
Author, Editor, Speaker, Blogger