Skip the News? You'll Miss the Drama

              At the Fourth of July party, the lady sitting opposite us overheard the words “New York Times.”

“I would not read that paper,” she interrupted. “I don’t want to read foreign news. I want to read local news.  Local news! “

“Ahhh…” I began to reply…but she was sashaying out of the room.

She’s right, of course. The Times overflows with overseas coverage. But I had a rejoinder. (And what are blogs for if not for firing off rejoinders?)

 “How,” I’d challenge her, “do you tell foreign from local news these days? And besides, foreign news contains the stuff of suspenseful drama.”

We Need Local News

Yes, yes, I know local news is crucial. It’s truly important to know what’s going on around you. And it’s clear that knowing what’s going on locally can enable news consumers to react to hometown events. That’s one reason people pursue local news.  And okay, there’s hardly anything at all we can do about events in Syria, Yemen, or tottering Greece and Spain.

Yet consider that what’s occurring in Iran, the Euro Zone, and England (home of naughty Barclays bank) could impact the U.S. economy, the economies of other nations, the U.S.  Presidential campaigns--and ultimately your bank account.

 Therein lays the drama.

A Little Imagination Please

Imagine the goings-on in, say, Iran and England as a novelist might.

The plot: Iran’s the protagonist. It is a nation smaller than Alaska

  A white-bearded religious tough in a turban and medieval robes rules the country, and he’s managing a fight with the world’s most powerful countries. Iran is out muscled and staggering from hard economic blows to its breadbasket. But it’s hanging on, stretching hard to grab a weapon that will—like Popeye’s dose of spinach--give it a knockout punch. It would make Iran mighty.

Iran’s foes see it reaching for the weapon. They yell,” Surrender now or we’ll hit harder and harder.”

 But Iran refuses. It’s not only stubborn; it’s smart. If it can keep absorbing the punishment, it might wear out its enemies. And if it can taunt them to lose patience and hit with everything they have, they will surely also hurt themselves. They will likely damage their own economies, restart a huge recession, and upend one of their chief foe’s presidential race. Everyone in the United States will be affected.

Who will win the war of wills? Suspense builds.

New Story

Turn now to England. The plot there:

 Barclays, a too-big-to-fail bank, is the main character.

 As the story begins, Barclays is pictured frowning and crumpling copies of email printouts. Barclays knows detectives have the originals, and the originals show the bank has manipulated interest rates and possibly adversely influenced some $350 trillion worth of financial instruments in England and elsewhere.

Barclays is in trouble. It faces endless interrogation, and it’s almost certain its cronies in the United States will reveal how they figured in its schemes, further implicating it.

Readers see Barclays as surrounded in mystery. Here the novelist deftly weaves in the ideas of Joe Nocera, a New York Times columnist. Nocera notes that Britons who learned of Barclays’ violation of law and “abuse of trust” are in an “utter frenzy.” He says Barclays’ big bank buddies in the United States, including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and others are being investigated.

Outrage in the Offing

 “Which means,” he writes, “there is going to be a lot more opportunities for Americans to become outraged over this scandal. And maybe, finally, the will to change banking once and for all.”

It’s clear as the novel progresses that if banking is finally changed, that affects everyone in the country.

At this point in the tale, the novelist splices in facts the Times’ Nathaniel Popper gathered. Popper adds new characters. He portrays Baltimore city lawyers fighting in court against the world’s big banks. The lawyers accuse bankers—some call them “bankstsers”—of cheating Baltimore when the city borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars.  The city’s resulting losses helped create the need to fire employees and curtail certain needed services.

The moral of both stories is that foreign affairs can and does influence local citizens.

Fantasizing aside, it has been plain for many, many months that the monetary situation in the Euro Zone threatens the United States. Unless Europe’s leaders properly aid money-shy Greece, Spain, and possibly Italy, the United States and other nations could re-run the Great R.

We know from experience how a big recession hurts all in local communities.

                                                                              --Gus Gribbin

Joe Nocera’s column titled Libor’s Dirty Laundry appeared on the Op Ed page of the July 7, 2012 print edition of the New York Times.

Nathaniel Popper’s report headlined Rate Scandal Stirs Scramble for Damages ran on page one of the July 11 print edition of the Times.