Doomsayers Proved Wrong Again

Good news doesn't sell papers. So when Katrina and Rita hit, the news media hustled up sales by predicted $5 a gallon gas and long lines at gas stations.

Wrong. Again.

Oil edged lower Tuesday on signs that crude supplies remain plentiful, even with all U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil output locked in after Hurricane Rita.

Saudi Arabia said there were no takers for OPEC's spare supplies, while the kingdom may pump less crude in October. The possible cut in output next month would come even with all 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of U.S. crude production in the Gulf of Mexico shut in for a third day Monday.

At 6:20 a.m. ET, U.S. crude fell 60 cents to $65.22 a barrel ...

Negativity has become such a hallmark of journalism, it is rivaled only by reporters' lack of appreciation for capitalist market forces. Put the two together in one story, especially if a picture can be painted of oil companies as evil in the process, and the result is a negative cluelessness that reminds me of:


Eeyore. Droopy, sad, always expecting the bad. Never convinced from past experience, when things turned out better, that this time around, things actually will be better. "Please," he laments, "will you buy my newspaper?"