Separating butterflies from moths to interpret media signals

FORWARD THINKING: By Allan Saunderson, Managing Editor, PIE

The problem with the media; the reason you cannot take financial signals on face value in the press can be explained by the west coast timber moth, otherwise known as the tussock moth. Reporting on the $5.4bn loss by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund VI International reminded me of the insect recently. As a newly-minted journalist I was editor of a weekly newspaper in a suburb of Vancouver some, ahem, years ago. Deadline was upon us but without a front page story. Enter the moth page left, fluttering. It was busy eating Douglas Fir trees in Oregon down south in the US and making them unfit for timber - a maaajorrr potential problem for British Columbia, whose economic health then as now is largely dependent on US housing starts.....