The Bill Shakespeare method of reading business news

Jerry Bowyer writes on the TCS Daily web site about reading business news in the same way one should read plays by William Shakespeare.

Bowyer wrote, “Next time you read a newspaper, I want you to try the Much Ado about Nothing Analytical Tool. In the left column you put sentences with stats based on an actual count of something real – jobs, dollars, interest rates, prices. Quotes, if they are substantial, go in the left column too. Actual events like hurricanes, elections, wars and terrorist attacks are definitely left column material.

“Your right column is for sentences with words like ‘worries’, ‘concerns’, ‘expectations’ or ‘believes’. Unattributed quotes go on the right, as do short quotes. Opinion polls go on the right. This includes opinion polls masquerading as economic stats like consumer confidence, or business confidence. Elections and futures markets, however, go on the left. ‘Sub-prime jitters’ is a left column thing.

“Now step back and compare your two columns. The first column is a glimpse, however incomplete, of the world as it is. The second is a glimpse, no matter how distorted, of the world as people perceive it.”

Read more here.