By TREVOR MALOOF


While watching CNN last Monday afternoon after the House of Representatives initially rejected the bailout plan I listened as a financial correspondent spoke to anchor Rick Sanchez. She described how the day on Wall Street started off peculiarly because there was no opening bell due to an electronic malfunction. I thought it was interesting in that it added a little poetic color to the story of that day’s market. Then on Tuesday morning I read a front-page story in the New York Times that began, “Even before the opening bell, Monday looked ugly.” Was there a bell or wasn’t there? The Times article continued, “But by the time that bell sounded again on the New York Stock Exchange, seven and a half frantic hours later, $1.2 trillion had vanished from the United States stock market.” We can infer that another bell rang or the New York Times misreported – probably the latter. Another explanation could be that the New York Times liked the idea of an ominous bell starting the day’s trading and so it was written that way. The Times created a reality, which so closely resembled the accepted reality that the newspaper felt comfortable publishing it. And hey who cares really, it’s just a bell. Well yes it is just a bell. And if you’re a historian in ten years you’re going to read that there was a bell that day.

And like I said, it’s pretty minor when you think about it; whether a bell rang, whether a letter was sent or read, whether a phone call was placed by a high official in a forgotten war, or whether you even read this article.




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