OakesP, yes this is getting tedious and is adding little to the discussion.
I also agree that much of this cannot be proven without - let's say - conducting a statistically significant survey to determine what finance professionals what they would make of the sentence. That obviously is not going to happen so let's drop it and agree to differ.
However, you've accused me multiple times of being wrong and erroneous in my reading of your original comments and that is simply not fair. The comment I responded to was the following:
I challenged the "standard reporting" aspect of this in the context of the phrase "declines in bonds" which - if you read some of the prior comments at that point in the thread - was what I was attempting to explain to umop3p!sdn. Without having qualified which exact words you were referring in the above sentence, you can not fairly accuse me of being "wrong" in my reading of your comment. Your "magnanimous" forgiveness of my "error" grates a little, you will appreciate.
I also agree that much of this cannot be proven without - let's say - conducting a statistically significant survey to determine what finance professionals what they would make of the sentence. That obviously is not going to happen so let's drop it and agree to differ.
However, you've accused me multiple times of being wrong and erroneous in my reading of your original comments and that is simply not fair. The comment I responded to was the following:
I take the point mentioned by another poster that there could be an issue with the journo (whoever he/she is) not understanding what was written, but the written words are not wrong and as someone else pointed out are in fact standard reporting
I challenged the "standard reporting" aspect of this in the context of the phrase "declines in bonds" which - if you read some of the prior comments at that point in the thread - was what I was attempting to explain to umop3p!sdn. Without having qualified which exact words you were referring in the above sentence, you can not fairly accuse me of being "wrong" in my reading of your comment. Your "magnanimous" forgiveness of my "error" grates a little, you will appreciate.