So I found out today that when I quoted Forbes on Sunday, I was quoting lies. Lies and exaggerations.
The "MEGA DEFAULT" they were screaming about?
It's not happening. China worked out the issues. Credit equals gold is not defaulting.
The story about "CHINA SUSPENDS BANK TRANSFERS!!!!" was a hoax. No such thing ever actually happened.
So the story I posted on Sunday? It's not accurate. A few people posted links to blogs in the comments which claimed that the Forbes article was false. I even asked about the veracity of those blogs, because I made the mistake of trusting Forbes over some random guy on the internet.
Wow was that a mistake!
But like the responsible journalists they are, they have issued retractions and apologized for misleading people.
Just kidding! They took down the bank transfer suspension story without issuing any further comment. Seriously, there's no "Whoops, this story was false, everyone" there's just a cute page saying "40Forbes."
Seriously, Forbes? You look silly enough posting hoaxes without adding internet error code puns.
I look foolish for listening to you in the first place, but here I am, D-List Blogger, and I at least have the integrity to write a damned retraction. Thanks guys. Thanks so much for leaving me holding the bag on this one. (I bet that's a trick you learned from your buddies in finance.)
Is this intentional obfuscation? Are they trying to intentionally make it so difficult to follow financial news that nobody bothers?
Or are financial writers at Forbes just the least trustworthy people in the world when it comes to basic journalistic integrity? A journalist from Forbes couldn't pick up the phone and call someone in China to make sure the story he was reporting on wasn't a hoax?!
I'm going to keep following financial news, and I hope you all do too. The only way to keep another crash from happening is to keep a spotlight shining on the irresponsible financial industry that cares way more about profits today than the long term health of the economic system they're using to make those profits.
Unfortunately the people manning the biggest spotlights are a pack of incompetents who don't even have the intellectual integrity to print a retraction when they totally screw the pooch.
And to their credit, bloggers at a website called Zero Hedge called Forbes out for posting hoaxes. A few folks posted the link to that call out in my diary.
And I'm grateful to them for it.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that in a world of journalistic incompetence, some dude with the monicker "Tyler Durden"is more trustworthy than Forbes.
So thanks, Forbes, you got schooled by someone who's internet monicker is a fight club character, and made me look foolish for trusting your reporting.
I for one am going to keep watching economic markets, banks, and finance. And I think we all should. But in the future, I'm going to personally give a hell of a lot more clout to independent citizen journalists, like the guys over at Zero Hedge.
I've written a letter to the Editor of Forbes. I'll let you know what their response is if I get one at all. What with the 40Forbes nonsense, I doubt they'll even acknowledge that they made a mistake here.