The Matrix Economy, The Media, and Agent Smith

On today's show I interviewed Charles Payne of Wall Street Strategies and I am coming to the conclusion that we have a Matrix Economy. This economy is largely a lie and is one designed to make us have a negative perspective. The greater our pessimism, the more likely we will consume the poison being fed to us by the media.

I wrote a while back about Agent Smith of the Matrix and his conversation with Neo. In it I wrote "I love the scene where Agent Smith tells Neo the truth about the world he has always known. He tells the hero that in earlier attempts the machines attempted to make a perfect virtual world so that humans would be happy while they waited to be batteries for the machines. Smith goes on to say that it made the humans miserable and they had to give us the current world plagued with challenges and problems in order to make us content. We lived for bad things, he argued, and the Matrix accomodates such." The antics of the last few weeks only further validates that argument. We continue to give the negative media higher ratings and they reciprocate with more of the information we actually need to not hear.

We need to get real about the economy. Our future depends upon it. The media is Agent Smith. Listen with caution.

When you click the above photo you will hear a recent interview with Charles Payne -- the most optimistic man on Wall Street -- about the economy.

Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

Eagerly Waiting Recession

I love the movie "The Matrix." It is smart and imaginative. Yes, it's violent, but even that seemed to have a purpose. I love the scene where Agent Smith tells Neo the truth about the world he has always known. He tells the hero that in earlier attempts the machines attempted to make a perfect virtual world so that humans would be happy while they waited to be batteries for the machines. Smith goes on to say that it made the humans miserable and they had to give us the current world plagued with challenges and problems in order to make us content. We lived for bad things, he argued, and the Matrix accomodates such.

I like to consider myself an optimist, but there is a part of this story rings true. One of my earliest posts was on the "Real Economy." Back in July of 2006, when the economy was booming, I wrote that "any way, the news isn't good, but the economy keeps on chugging along at excellent levels." In spite of the news today, we only have a very slight drop in the economy over the last month. According to economists, it takes six months of decline to be called a "receission." But believe me, we will keep hearing recession talk, even if February shows a dramatic up swing. The media business is actually the bad news business. They thrive as long as the media is bad, in their opinion.

I'm not ready to buy the recession rhetoric, regardless of how strongly it is pushed down my throat. A recession requires six month of economic decline. We have only seen a soft month. I believe we had years of recession rhetoric, yet continued prosperity. We should continue to determine our economic destiny.

Kevin Price is Host of the Houston Business Show (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.