Britannia Radio

Why cannot editors read what they publish and why do columnists show
such ignorance ?

Today's Telegraph illustrates my point.

It is good that Diana Crook in a letter should point out that when
the head of Nationwide predicts a 25% fall in house prices this
prediction is self-fulfilling as people will hardly be encouraged to
buy now, when the price is predicted to be lower later.

However both she and Simon Heffer in his article) are actually making
matters still worse by a simple error. The price fall of 25% was in
specific relationship to a fall from the peak price and thus includes
the 10.5% fall that has already occurred. This makes £15,000 worth
of difference! On a house sold at the top of the market for £200,000
the actual predicted fall would be £50, 000 whereas if it were a
further 25% the fall would be £65,000.

Nevertheless it was still foolish of Nationwide to make the
original forecast.