APRIL 2008: AROUND THE STATE
Who ya
gonna call?
HEADY TIMES if you’re an economic pundit. The
economy is getting sour, so TV stations want your sound bite
and reporters want your quotes. It might be a bad time to be a
mortgage broker, or a banker, or a construction worker, but
it’s high times on the media gravy train for econ
warriors like Bill Conerly. Conerly is one of the
region’s best-known economists and author of Businomics: From Headlines to Your
Bottomline, How to Profit in Any Economic Cycle. As
such, he’s had calls from wisdom-hungry media ranging
from USA Today to the
News Hour with Jim
Lehrer. In a gloomy market, Conerly is a go-to guy. We
caught up with him recently to extract a little wisdom.
Let’s get this out of
the way at the top. Recession. Yes or no? Maybe.
It’s either a recession or a recession-ette. For many
businesses, a near-recession is pretty darn harsh anyway.
Is the economic gloom keeping
you busy? I’ve done a lot more media interviews
lately. When everything is going along fine, the economy is not
in the news. Starting late last year reporters I hadn’t
talked to in years began calling. There was a time when it was
exciting to be interviewed on TV, but I’m 20 years past
that. But I’m not 20 years past loving economics. I fell
in love with it when I was 16. My wife asks me why I keep
working. If I were retired, I would still be getting up in the
morning checking the economic news. I might as well get paid
for it.
How stupid are journalists
about economics? There are some very sharp people in the
journalism profession and there are some very stupid ones.
How stupid is everyone
else? On a scale of 1-10, the country is a 3 in overall
economic intelligence. People who are not well informed are
more fearful. The presidential election doesn’t help.
There is rarely anything sensible coming out of the mouths of
candidates. Virtually every candidate is talking about
jump-starting the economy. The consensus among all of us
economists is that the president doesn’t run the
economy.
Do you answer the same
questions over and over? Yeah, over and over. Some of
the smart reporters know the answers but need me on the record
saying it. Some of the reporters are just so totally clueless.
Some reporters are covering an economic story because
that’s what they have to do to get to their ultimate
goal: the ax murder beat.
Any special beauty routine
for your TV appearances? No. For a while I was thinking
I should keep a jacket and a tie around. But I am what I
am.
Dating a supermodel
yet? No, but people will ask me about Giselle, the
Brazilian model who asked to be paid in euros not dollars. And
for the record, I don’t comment on economic groupies.
ROBIN DOUSSARD
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