The media's objective is to have you ready to slit your wrists by summer.

If you get all your news from the mainstream media, I can't help much, but you can do a little thinking about it.

Watch the tenses in a news item. Separate actual statistics--quantifiable things that are happening or have happened, from the dire speculations (see also: "20 feet of water over Manhattan"). Somebody predicting a recession isn't a recession. A typical story here: Maybe some good numbers now, but surely things will start to really suck soon!

...the big pickup in GDP didn't change the picture forming in the current October-to-December quarter. That scenario is somewhat grim, with indications the economy will lose considerable steam. Growth is expected to slow to a pace of just 1.5 percent or less in the final three months of this year.

Is it necessary for me to look up an older story from previous quarters to make my point? If you've been paying attention, they've been saying this same kind of thing for a long time now.

Examine the statistics. Check the long-term trends on any graph that cuts off only a year--or a few months--back. Note the graph below--you won't see anything in the papers like this. Every graph will be pulled out of "Time Period B."

Watch for modifiers..."existing" home sales. How about new homes? What's the larger picture? If the newspapers are trying to overly "parse" statistics, they're cooking them. Watch out for "lowest since 1996" phrasing. That comes under looking at the long-term graphs again.

"Economists believe..." I can pull up an economist to say anything.

Democrats were going to ride through 2007 and into 2008 on a disaster in Iraq. This isn't working out so well, so the economy, and people's perception of it, is what they have left to work with, and they're going to work it hard.

The fallout in the housing and credit markets is weighing on President Bush.

The public is giving Bush low marks for his handling of the economy. Just 32 percent -- a record low-- approve of his economic stewardship, according to a recent AP-Ipsos poll.

And that's what the story was all about in the first place.