Short-term thinking bias in the news

The news media are complicit in the total inability of the average person to think about the long-term impact of anything. One of the potent techniques you will see is the positioning of a recent event as completely insulated from the longer-term trend at play. For a nice chuckle, check out this lede from today's Financial Times, Gold loses lustre as haven asset:

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Gold, touted as the ultimate haven, was supposed to rise in a crisis. And yet in the past four days, its behaviour has been in line with the riskiest of assets.

Right. So, giving long backrubs to megabanks and cheerleading every possible industry-consolidating supermerger is good in all kinds of weather, no matter the outcome year over year. But if gold backs off a ten year trend for four days, you write an article warning readers to divest themselves, since It wasn't supposed to be this way!

Let's look at the trends over five and ten years:

Five: looking pretty good!

Now, ten: looking really good!

I dunno, FT, this has been a pretty good haven investment compared to, say, the Lehman Brothers stock I still own for old times' sake.

But when you compare it to, say, the LAST FOUR DAYS, yes, you're right, it looks like hell. GET OUT NOW!!! INVEST IN A MEGABANK OR SOMETHING!

Unless you take a slightly longer view. Which is up to you.