Regarding our current economic hypochondria

.....that's been effecting us for months.

It's obviously been blown WAY out of proportion.

Excerpts:

"The incessant, mind-numbing focus these days on the minute-by-minute ups and downs of the stock market - with numerous television, radio, and internet programs devoted to little else - is directly akin to the hypochondriac who constantly 'monitors' his head and chest and stomach for signs of impending sickness. It accomplishes little more than creating needless anxiety - anxiety which interferes with the more important business of getting on with life........

.....In a column he wrote in October 2006, George Will similarly warned against 'economic hypochondria.' He argued that this condition was 'a derangement associated with affluence' and 'a byproduct of the welfare state.' Together these have produced in Americans 'a low pain threshold . . . and a sense of being entitled to economic dynamism without the frictions and ‘creative destruction' that must accompany dynamism.'

Will also placed blame on the news media for its Dracula-like aversion to reporting sunny economic news. (This, of course, is a function of which party controls the White House. When a Democrat is president, the economic news suddenly appears quite rosy.) I agree with Will's analysis, but think that the real driving force behind the country's economic hypochondria are the tens of millions of Americans who now own stocks, and who consequently - and mistakenly - believe that the stock market is the be-all and end-all of economic life."

Well golly!

Do WE know anyone on the internet (nationally and ESPECIALLY locally) who suffers from "incessant, mind numbing focus" on the economy, which leads to the undermining of consumer confidence, and the denial of sub rosa machinations in the market?

Hmmmm, let me think......