triticale - the wheat / rye guy

Illusions

Out of all the dying mainstream media, I have a special hatred for my local daily newspaper, the Milwaukee Jourinal. There is a collective subscription at work, and it gets spread on the breakroom table, where, being hyperlexic, I end up looking at it. They recently ran a cartoon on the editorial page showing Chimpy McSmirk claiming to have turned the corner on the economy while walking Escher's endless stairway.

First of all, the caricatures have lost all resemblance to the man they mock, and have become a self-referential symbol. More important are the stories this same newspaper has published in the business section, which it seems they are ignoring and hope people have missed. Manitowoc Corporation and the reorganised Harnischfeger are both enjoying boom times, with huge orders for construction cranes and mining equipment for China and the rest of the Far East. A Wisconsin paper mill has taken a huge contract away from China because of their expertise with coated stock. Milwaukee industrial subcontractors are turning down orders because they can't hire enough skilled machinists. All of this local news is of course on top of month after month of generally positive national economic numbers. Could it be that they believe the entire economy is in bad shape simply because their sales and influence are waning?