Psychology and mind games

Another interesting post from a fellow blogger to ponder ... writingsonthewall today wrote:

"It's all about psychology and mind games.

Has anyone noticed that every piece of bad news is qualified by "better than Economists predicted" ?

It's no different today with the news that the PSBR in November was greater than since records began (and consequently at the greatest since the crisis started) ... The fact that Economists (who are not known for their prediction accuracy) got it wrong is not surprise really - and yet psychologically it makes us feel slightly more secure.

Now it might be that Economists are simply pessimists, but it's hard to believe that they always predict worse than expected for 'bad news' ... Start watching what you are being fed by the media and see what they are really up to ... It's all designed so that some time next autumn when we're told what the massive public sector cuts will be, they will be able to say how they are not as bad as expected and we will suffer them thinking that it's right, fair and neccessary and better than the alternative".

NB This supports and links very well with my previous post about BBC reporting ...