what the fed head said
no.
simple, but unlikely to move any markets. but enough to move me to write this.
since coming to k.c. and joining ellen on kansas city’s morning news, i’ve been trying to get the head of the local federal reserve on the show. now more that ever it seems like the time he should be willing to talk to all of us about our money.
usually, around this time of year, k.c. fed head thomas hoenig (which btw means ‘honey’) is out doing the rounds, talking about the economy in the coming year. he’s giving another such talk in a couple of weeks, so i, as always, make a phone call. and i actually got a call back from tim at the fed. no go.
if tim’s ‘no’ to my request is the norm for fed personnel when it comes to talking, then he and i had quite the epic dialogue…about 2 minutes i would guess. he told me that the k.c.f.h.t.h. doesn’t talk to electronic media because what he has to talk about doesn’t really fit into sound bytes. in other words, somebody misused a sound byte at some point and the rest of us suffer (and i guess if you don’t talk, you don’t have to defend what you say in full or in part). tim said he was familiar with the show, but was unimpressed with the offer of an interview segment (4-5-minute-long sound byte) and the week-in-review (1 big, hour-long sound byte). by this time, seems like tim is getting annoyed and wants to hang up. and, since i’ve just bought a big kitty tower, i’m anxious to get home and watch the cats hang upside down and swat at a mouse made of carpet scraps…
…so we hang up and he promises to keep my offer in mind (read: i’m never talking to you again).
15 minutes later, i get all excited when the phone rings again and i notice it looks like another fed number. k.c.f.h.t.h. is calling personally to tell me he’s current on his taxes, that he has reconsidered and would love to come on the show. nope. it’s terri at the fed. she’s calling to make sure i got the call from tim at the fed. tim and terri the thomas-no-talkie twins. maybe since the economy’s not doing so well, fed pr is concentrating on quality control?
what i don’t understand: i’ve seen quotes from k.c.f.h.t.h. in print before (i think the last one was when he was in argentina or something). printed media misquote people all the time, often because they don’t use recording devices to get the exact wording. best intentions, sure. but there’s nothing like an mp3 for accuracy. hello?!?
well, dr. hoenig, on behalf of all of us in the electronic media who would like to talk to you (even if it’s just little ol’ me), let me say that i regret that you have been burned in the past. ellen and i promise not to burn, char or otherwise expose you to excessive heat of any kind (unless you don’t answer a direct question that oughta have a simple answer). and we’re not interested in a sound byte. we’d like an open, informative conversation with one of the apparently few people who oughta be able to explain what in the world is happening with the economy, our money and our futures.
that having been said, i don’t hold my breath. i will now go about my business, head to happy hour at the m&s grill (it’s sooooo good) and prepare to make the same phone call again in a year. who knows, maybe i’ll get three pr people to call next time.
rock’n'roll