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Sloppy headline - spot the error!
12th April 2011
Can you spot the mistake in the headline below - take from an article by Rupert Neate in the Telegraph, 11th April 2011?
The error is compounded in the opening paragraph of text
“The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said soaring inflation coupled with low pay rises means household peacetime disposable income is at its lowest since 1921. Rising food, clothing and energy prices mean the average British family will have £910 less to spend this year than they did in 2009.”
How can disposable income be at its lowest level since 1921? Have we all missed the most staggering and unexpected collapse in post-tax income?
The CEBR web site press-release has a slightly different take!
Biggest peacetime squeeze on household disposable incomes since 1921
“New Cebr forecasts show that 2011 is likely to show a fall in real household disposable incomes of 2.0%. Taken in conjunction with the 0.8% fall now recorded as having taken place in 2010, the new estimates show that the UK is now seeing a bigger fall in real household disposable incomes than in the 1930s and the biggest fall excluding WW2 and the General Strike since 1921.”
It seems that trained (?) financial journalists can get confused about the difference between a percentage change and the actual level of an economic variable. Sloppy journalism none the less.
Geoff Riley
Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.