Murray also chided the media for its sensationalist coverage of the housing and subprime crises. He drew laughter from the crowd, describing headlines fretting about "the abyss of a 5.1% unemployment rate," while noting that the 18.7% correction in the Standard & Poor's 500 index over the last eight months didn't even rank among the top 12 post-World War II bear markets.
After citing several amazing examples of progress over the last century, he told attendees, "You will help us or fail us," depending on whether you can "get people to square fears with facts. This is the worst time in history to turn pessimistic."