In a Town Hall post – It’s the economy –
are we stupid? – Deborah Jones asked how prepared journalists are to place
economic issues in context. These days, it’s an important question. With the
economy crowding into the news pages, shouldering aside even the Iraq war, political
reporters suddenly must be on par with their counterparts in the financial pages, or face defeat on the interview front.
News reporters need to confidently stand up to a politician’s financial spin or,
as reported in Slap
Down, be prepared to stare down the prime minister when he makes a withering
condemnation of one’s economic analysis.

To help get journalists up to speed, J-Source offers Tools
for Reporters – Business and Finance. The section includes links to valuable
resources, such as the webcast  Business Reporting
Tutorials offered by the journal Chartered
Financial Analyst. Recent web-casts include John Bogle’s Black Mondays and
Black Swans, as well as Managing the
Previously Unimaginable: Lessons from the Leverage Unwinds by Mohamed A. El-Erian.

How prepared are you to report on the economy? These days you don’t have a choice, so you might as well get started learning as much as you can.