April 30th, 2009

We hate and we love

It’s not often that greenshootsblog.com is in two minds about things. Usually we’re single-minded in our appreciation of positive business stories, that will encourage us to keep going as we try to get through these undoubtedly tough times. And it’s even less often that we’d take on such august publications as the Economist, but in this instance we find ourselves unable to stay silent.

First, where we see eye-to-eye. In one of its leaders last week, A glimmer of hope, we were delighted to see the quote that we’ve been pleased to borrow for the header of this post. Also that “two thirds of the 42 stockmarkets” that they track are “up” that week, reports of China’s economy picking up, the slump in global manufacturing easing as well as property markets in the US and UK “showing signs of life”. Exactly the sort of news we love to share.

Then where we part company. When discussing the ongoing dangers that remain, the newspaper questioned how to cope and suggested that it was “certainly not by clutching at scraps of good news” that greenshootsblog.com started to take umbridge. The (simplified) gist of their argument was that this would prevent, rather than encourage the world to take action.

Perhaps the fine newspaper should spend a little more time talking to people actually dealing with the issues, rather than dealing with people who are just talking about them. From where we stand, this sort of good news is what encourages those of us trying to make things better to try a little harder – and that perhaps, just perhaps it might be working.

So for that reason we will both agree and disagree with The Economist this time.