Closely Following the News Will Make You a Better Investor

Yesterday, during my lunchtime jog, as the stream of consciousness flowed, snippets of the week's news kept bobbing by.  I never watch the news; why compound the damage?  The only time I ever listen to the news is in the car.  And then only to NPR/FOX.*

"Two men caught in Paris with bomb-making materials"
"The DOW is up 68 points"  (to what, they don't say)
"North Korea launches missile over Japan"
And so on.

Years ago when I would catch a program on NPR my usual response was, "Wow, I'm glad I had time to listen to that!".  Now my usual response is, "What the hell do I need to know that for?"  Or, "I wish I hadn't heard that!".  There are common elements among the newsesque programs which are ubiquitous and that is the editor's desire to fabricate the illusion that:

• We humans rarely get along and, in fact, are normally at one anothers' throats
• The world is dangerous
• I have my finger on the pulse of the world baby! ("The DOW is up 68 points".  I would have trouble coming up with a more useless tidbit.)
• Other people are basically stupid and dangerous
• My "tribe" is superior

This sets us up to be fertile ground for corporate & government intrusion into our lives and the lives of others, driving our focus into the base brain where fear & anger lurk.

On the other hand, I get all the daily news I need in my morning meditation:

• Life is pretty awesome
• People are amazing, essentially loving beings
• The older I get the less I know
• All of us have suffering
• All of us have the capacity to decrease suffering
• In that important respect, we're all the same

So what does that have to do with investing?  Calm & contented investors make better decisions than angry, fearful, suspicious investors.

*Yes, it seems like NPR has adopted the lizard brain focus of FOX

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