Credit Dating Hype Part 2

So, the hype just continues to snowball; now NPR has picked up on the story. Earlier today they featured an interview with Jessica Silver-Greenberg who wrote the New York Times article which reinvigorated the public interest in credit score dates. How many more times will media rehash the same story again and again? The entire story is based on an article about a dubious blog post and supported by a flimsy website. Again, I have no problem with the entire concept of credit score dating; I have a problem with the idea not progressing toward fruition. All of the stories in the mainstream media are based on two or three sources, hardly what could be called balanced reporting. Anyway, if the trend is to continue, I hope that a little depth begins to form.

Fiscal Cliff

What happened to the Fiscal Cliff? Did we Thelma and Louise off of it? Or did we turn back at the last minute? I'm being glib, but my point is that any legitimate danger would surely not have came and went like the latest Kardashian gossip. Not that anxiety about the economy isn't warranted, but rather than a fiscal cliff, we should be worried about fiscal policy. Has anyone been following the confirmation hearings? I'm a little concerned about Chuck Hagel. And I am nervous to see who will be nominated as Treasury Secretary. Business Insider lists Sheryl Sandberg (yes, that Sheryl Sandberg) first on their shortlist of potential candidates. That doesn't bode well in my opinion.

Credit Score Dates

I may have found a beacon of hope in the dark world of credit score dating. This site offers some heady insight into the larger questions surrounding this area of study, which interests me as a researcher very much. Something I learned from the site is that this isn't the first time that "credit score dating" has made a blip on the social RADAR. Actually, back in 2007; it reached the top popularity rating on Google Trends. Why the sudden recurrence? What is different this time around? According to Creditscoredates.com, the difference is that entrepreneurs are catching on this time and working to shift the interest toward online dating. My only hope is that more capable hands pick up the lead.

Blind Leading The Blind

Believe me, I would love to see credit score dating bloom into a full blown niche dating market; but the sites available at this point in time are simply not going to lead in that direction. Why have none of the pieces on this trend mentioned how shoddy the main referenced site is? www.creditscoredating.com is one of the cheesiest websites I have seen since AOL fell from grace. Kudos to The Gothamist for pointing this out. I would love to see this trend take off, but everyone involved with this community has a lot of work to do if that is where we are headed.

Credit Dating Hype

This video above presents the same information as every other piece out there on the subject of credit score dating. Is this really a thing? Is there something to the trend or is this just a cycle of media hyped sharks feeding on each other? As a researcher, I am very interested in establishing an objective opinion about all of this, but there seems to be little to stand on.

Politics Of Debt In America

Though I may be a libertarian (small l), I don't think debt is a good thing. In fact, it tends to hinder free markets in my opinion (I don't consider money markets "markets" in the traditional sense of the word). I came across this article about "The Politics of Debt in America" and it really struck a chord with me (even though it was in a lefty mag). It was a really well-researched/thought out article. Like I said, I tend toward the 'less-government' side of things, but let's face it: nothing about our markets at the moment are free. In a perfect world, I'd be straight up laissez-faire; but it ain't and I'm not.

TODAY

I was watching the TODAY show the other day and they had a feature on the credit dating trend. It was good to see it getting press, but the piece was a little shoddy. It was obvious they had just scraped their information from other articles. I wasn't expecting top notch journalism from that show, but two minutes of research would have produced a much nicer result, and on a national show they have a responsibility to make quality content.