Free exchange | Pedantry

Sometimes, good enough is good enough

Know what you want to know

By R.A. | WASHINGTON

TODAY, the Dow Jones Industrial Average flirted with the 13,000 level, prompting lots of people across a number of different media to talk about how the Dow was flirting with the 13,000 level. Of course, there's no real meaning to the 13,000 level; people just like big, round numbers, and so discussion about how the Dow had returned to this particular level (the last close above 13,000 occurred in May of 2008) seemed somehow more justified than discussion of the index's attainment of, say, the all-important 12,578 level. A focus on big, round numbers is a little silly.

Twitter overflowed, however, with a different sort of disdain: Dow-hating. Matt Yglesias captured the sentiment:

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