When we think about the most important news headlines of the past few years, how many of them will be a big deal a hundred years from now? Which ones of them will have historical relevance? Which ones will be in our great grandchildren's history books?
I can't help but to believe that with our focus on the short term and 24 hour news cycle that the "BIGGEST MOST SHOCKING HEADLINE OF THE DAY" is just not that important. Even when something of relative importance is brought to the forefront we don't have time to discus it or to reflect on it before the next news cycle wipes it clear.
Here is your assignment - Find a headline from the last 5 years that you think will be relevant in 50 to 100 years. Post it in the comments below.
Here is a short talk to highlight the possible choices for the Long Term News.
While headlines document historical events, I think a bigger question is do we actually learn anything from our headlines? Hence the saying, history tends to repeat itself.
ReplyDeleteI think the common thing for man is to shun regret. This is ever so true, at least in the financial markets. Case in point, the most recent financial meltdown.
Just yesterday they were playing on CNBC, "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room". Basic story of a greed led society -- believing in the get rich quick scheme which led to one of the biggest manipulations on Wall Street resulting in Enron's bankrupcy and the demise of Arthur Andersen, the #1 accounting firm.
Remember - Enron were "innovators" of financial instruments to trade the energy markets. "Mark-to-market" accounting allowed them to book future profits they never realized. They controlled the flow of energy power resulting in "rolling blackouts" in California and the demise of Gray Davis. Their debt was hiden in off balance sheet limited partnerships that were run by Enron's own CFO, Mark Fastow. The world's most respected accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, buys off on it, analysts at the major brokerage firms don't question it until it was too late. Sound familiar??
Less than a decade later, we have the meltdown of the financial markets led by companies buying "innovative financial securities" in the form of Credit Default Swaps (CDSs) which was a form of insurance backing up sub-prime mortgage pools. There was no true way to value these things and the "mark-to-market" accounting led to the demise of Lehman. The rating agencies like Moodies and Standard & Poors that are to protect investors buy in and give good ratings to these investments because their funding comes from Wallstreet firms, the same firms that are creating these financial instruments (no conflict there). The government steps in to protect AIG - no coincidence Paulson is former Goldman Sachs exec and Goldman has most to lose with AIG going under insuring their billions in CDSs.
All too familiar....just different players.
What I see, at least in the financial markets, greed has led the way and has kept our memory short term. Will this recent melt-down be headlines we remember and learn from?? Or will we quickly shun it and forget it, paving way for the next scandal and manipulation....
Very insightful Anonymous. I agree with you.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that if we don't learn from the news today that it will become news again in the future. Maybe we could avoid it becoming "news" again.
and the cheating or the cultire of cheating is the topic of a blog in the near future. Why do people cheat? Under what circumstances? Are there things that make them cheat more or less?