Negative news. Don't listen to the noise

IanManc

friolento said:

Spare a thought this Christmas for the 14 million people in the UK who are living in poverty, and for perhaps a similar number of people who don’t live in poverty yet still can’t spare a penny to invest, or even to save. Be grateful if you are not affected by the cost of living crisis but don’t pretend it isn’t real.

The World Bank defines absolute poverty as having less than US$2.15 a day to spend. About 660 million people, about 8.5% of the world's population, are in that position.

To say that 14 million people in the UK are in poverty - which is actually relative poverty, defined as having less than 60% of the median income in the UK - represents a perversion of the word poverty.

In 1931 Ghandi visited Darwen in Lancashire. Some weavers were explaining to him how the boycott of their products as part of the Indian independence movement was affecting them financially.

Ghandi responded by saying "My dear, you don't know what poverty is".

The same response might be given by the 660 million people in absolute poverty worldwide to those who assert that 14 million people live in poverty in the UK.

EthicsGradient

As eskbanker says, what we see on that page is an artifact of how they're not reporting on the S&P 500, and/or not updating that page, rather than "noise" that we "shouldn't listen to".

In common with a lot of the mainstream media (as opposed to the business media), the broadcast BBC says very little about the S&P 500, instead giving us daily updates on the less representative Dow Jones - because, I guess, they always have, and think that switching would confuse people. There has been just one BBC web story mentioning the S&P 500 in the last 6 months that I can see - about a drop of 1.4% after the US government lost its top credit rating in August. The Dow only fared slightly better inside web articles, with a story a couple of days ago about hitting a new high after the Fed interest rate news (though there are a few stories about the England women's rugby players Dow and Jones who turn up in the lineup next to each other ...)

So this is more "don't get your investing news from a site that barely mentions what you're interested in" than "ignore the noise".

sheslookinhot

jaypers said:

friolento said:

Spare a thought this Christmas for the 14 million people in the UK who are living in poverty, and for perhaps a similar number of people who don’t live in poverty yet still can’t spare a penny to invest, or even to save. Be grateful if you are not affected by the cost of living crisis but don’t pretend it isn’t real.

I suspect that nobody on here would do that but with respect this particular group is about savings and investments. Do we need to caveat every post with a cost of living comment? What about Gaza? Oh, and don’t forget the terrible war in Ukraine still going on. 

Yes, poverty and hardship is a terrible thing. I’m sure many on here do their part to support good causes but we aren’t here to discuss that.

It’s the internet and people comment what they like. You can’t be imposing on people what they post.

talexuser

We all know the S&P is dominated by a few techs which have been described as in a bubble for a very long time with the crash just around the corner. So the news is good until the bubble bursts which very few accurately predict. I'm reminded of all those articles saying interest rates were going up for the benefit of savers every couple of months while we had 10 years of zero interest rates. Eventually the stopped clock showed the right time and the predictions were correct! Just carry on and weather the downturns when they come.