I understand The Star has a duty to keep the public informed, but what really is galling is that it quotes doomsayers who basically tell the reading public that things will only get bleaker from here: "There is no evidence that the recent collapse in consumer confidence is going to turn around anytime soon," from one “expert� source, or "There is no clear sign things have bottomed out yet," from another, with a third source predicting housing price drops of another 6 percent before things turn around.

Here is what The Star and every media outlet are doing: exacerbating and perpetuating exactly the gloom that is being predicted. What is a prospective homebuyer supposed to do when he reads this drivel? How about somebody thinking about a new car? As far as predictions go, with all of our technology, we still can't get tomorrow's weather right.

We, the reading public, are smart enough to know things are not great right now. The fundamental problem is that we are also being bombarded by the media about how much worse it will soon be. Tomorrow is a promise to nobody. If The Star wants our local economy to come to a grinding halt, just keep telling readers the sky is falling, that things are bound to really get bad from here, and then line up your experts to confirm it. Or better yet, do like my mother told me: "If you have nothing positive to say, keep quiet."

— Ronald J. Peters, Thousand Oaks