John Quiggin

Posted 6:48 PM by John Quiggin
It's interesting to compare US and Australian coverage of the ballooning US current account deficit. The ABC ran the deficit as the story, noting the reaction on the currency markets
ABC News - US account deficit reaches record blow out
NYT buried the deficit blowout in a business story about the dollar. Dollar Hits a 2-Year Low Against Euro And, following its standard practice, it assumed that readers of its business pages would not know what the current account deficit means, glossing it as ‘A broader measure of the country's international financial standing'. Even the WSJ does this.
Most of the US media don't even cover the trade deficit to any extent, let alone the current account. A search on Moreover :: Business Intelligence & Dynamic Content reveals mostly non-US coverage.
So the average American, even an assiduous reader of the newspapers, is basically uninformed about what would anywhere else be regarded as a balance-of-payments crisis. By contrast, the foreign affairs coverage of the NYT has always been excellent and, since September 11, the same is coming to be true of other US media. Perhaps they're right not to worry, but the currency markets don't think so.

Posted 5:59 PM by John Quiggin
Hello World!

This is my first blog entry. I aim to use this blog both as a running commentary on what's happening in Australia and the world and as a guide to developments on my website, http://ecocomm.anu.edu.au/quiggin/

Comments much appreciated at John.Quiggin@anu.edu.au