WE have learned in this age of the Internet that there are well-designed traps to get us to “click” on a particular web site. Spam e-mail is notorious for a “subject” line that will entice us to read. However, these high-tech methods of getting your attention were invented a hundred years ago by newspapers.
A local newspaper printed a headline that might be hall of fame material: “PH to experience 2018’s longest day today.” To the unwary, this might be a story about an unusual situation. Maybe it has something to do with our local politics. Obviously, something is going on in the Philippines that would make the day the longest in 2018.
The first sentence gives the reality: “The Philippines and the rest of the world will experience this day the longest daytime for the year.” It is the day of the Summer Solstice when the Northern Hemisphere of the earth is most tilted toward the sun.
Unfortunately, though, the first sentence is completely wrong. It is only in the Northern Hemisphere that the sun shines longer. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is the “shortest” day of the year.
This is not a big deal. The point is, we all have the responsibility to read more than the headline and maybe even question the “story.” Taken to a ridiculous extreme, someone might have had a horrible day by just reading the headline.
“The Philippines has been cursed by the Current Administration to more daylight caused by Global Warming.” But another might walk with a smile thinking, “How lucky we are that the Current Administration has given us extra daylight.” Every topic must have a local politics viewpoint.
In the US, the headline reads: “Chinese Investments in the US Plunge By 92 percent.” The first sentence gave the details. “China’s direct investments in the US plunged in the first half of 2018 as Chinese companies completed acquisitions and greenfield investments worth only $1.8 billion, a 92-percent drop over the past year, and the lowest level in seven years.”
There also, this story needs a political slant. “Obviously the terrible economic policy of the Trump administration toward China is a disaster.” Or, “China deserves not to be able to take advantage of the great profit opportunities in the good old US of A.”
As with the Philippine peso and the local stock market, “politics” is not the concern.
A nation’s economic policies are going to affect subtopics of the economy like markets and investment. There are two sides to every story. China has been in a battle for three years to keep money at home. Xi Jinping’s crackdown on “corruption” by limiting funds going to the casinos of Macau had less to do with corruption than with capital outflow. The same is true of China’s foreign investments.
While the current US trade policies give the Chinese an excuse not to invest in the US, the drop in investment is also attributable to that attack on capital flight, as well as the US government looking with great caution at Chinese companies buying into the US economy. While the year-on-year decline is 92 percent, it is important to note that 2017 saw a 35-percent drop from 2016.
Things are not always what they appear to be, especially in the headlines. But we all need readers so let us tease you with a headline for tomorrow: “PHL will not experience 2018’s longest day today.”