Interest rates: when they were up, they were, urm…

Leave the first response February 19, 2010 / Posted in Financial

Scanning today’s news reports online, I was perplexed to find the following contradictory headlines:

» Fed rate rise sparks fresh slide in sterling (Times Online)
» Pound slides further on surprise Fed rate cut (Telegraph.co.uk / Reuters)

The facts? Yesterday, the US Federal Reserve increased one of its key interest rates from 0.5% to 0.75%. That’s… hang on… yup, an INCREASE. (Cue a stronger dollar, weaker Pound, etc).

So on this occasion, Times Online gets full marks, whilst the Telegraph gets an F. Or an M. Or some other random and totally inaccurate grade. Amazingly, it still took until after midday for the Telegraph to correct this most basic of errors. At least the “surprise” part was right.

We can surely all do without this kind of shoddy reporting. With the economy in a right old mess and the value of the Pound continuing to plummet, it would be nice if we could at least rely on skimming the news headlines for keeping up to date with how much trouble we’re all in.

But when quality newspapers like the Telegraph apparently don’t even know which way is up, what chance do the rest of us stand?

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