A TV star, hardly

Back when I was at UAH (whoops, they now prefer to be called UA Huntsville), I would sometimes be asked to talk to one of the local TV stations about economic issues.  Since moving to my current place, though, I haven't been asked to do that. Until now.

On Monday, the campus PR woman called and asked if I'd be willing to talk with channel xx about the current state of the economy.  I was just grateful they didn't want to talk about the intricate details of Lehman Brothers, so I agreed. It's really not a big deal and I did what any economist would. I admitted that the economy is not doing really super right now, but it will bounce back. I then pointed out that AL is not doing as badly as some other parts of the country and this part of AL is doing better than the state as a whole. I even went so far as to point out that, by historical standards, this downturn is not all that severe. Basically I downplayed the irrational sense of panic that the chicken littles seemed to be espousing.

Then the rest of the week unfolded. The feds signed on for another massive bailout, the stock market took a huge hit, and things in general started looking a bit more grim. To further make me look like an idiot, the station decided to hold the story for a while -- making my optimistic spin from Monday look even more foolish. Plus, to add final insult to injury, I now hear they are planning to make it a bigger story AND talk to a local family about how they've been affected by recent economic changes. I can already picture it. A destitute family will be talking about how they both lost their jobs, the bank took back their house, their child needs surgery but they don't have any insurance, and the dog just up and died. Then there will be me: Don't worry, the economy will bounce back; it's not really that bad, etc.

Needless to say, I will NOT be watching that particular news report.