The wisdom of my father

Kris Frieswick’s father was a repo man. Mine worked for the New York Post in distribution (Did you ever wonder how newspapers got to those little kiosks in New York City? That was my Dad!) He’d read all the daily papers and compare the stories on the train coming home. We’d discuss them over dinner.

When I read the most recent AP article on housing, Pending home sales index falls 3.5%, I feel grateful for being taught how to read a newspaper. My father taught me:

When faced with statistics, read the entire article before looking at the numbers. Figure out what is relevant to you. Then, look at the figures and try to understand their logic. In this article, I do not even need to understand the economic information because I can read what is relevant to me, -- and to you, the buying public – a little more than halfway down the page:

“Pending home sales rose in the West and Northeast, the association said, but fell in the South and Midwest."

Anyone who read just the headline or the first half of the article got the entirely wrong idea of what is happening in the Northeast.

Happy Independence Day. I hope my Dad and I help you become independent readers!