There’s no doubt that stocks are taking a beating these days amid widespread economic fears of a recession, tariffs, trade wars, etc. But you have to wonder if there’s more than a little hysteria at work when you read headlines like this from the Globe: “Should you sell all your stock? Buy a car now? Don’t panic: Here’s how to handle the economic turbulence.” … Fanning panic while pretending to tamp down panic. … Okaaaay.

So what’s really going on? Well, as stated, there really are some genuine economic concerns out there. But there’s also a strong element of hysteria being whipped up by a MSM that’s once again revealing its old left-of-center biases – as well as hysteria being whipped up by your usual-suspect partisans in general. As Justin Wolfers, an economics and public policy professor at the University of Michigan, pointed out in the NYT regarding recent economic news: 

“You could almost hear people on the left squeal with delight that the data were confirming their concerns about the Trump presidency. Those squeals led to equally absurd counterclaims from the right.”