The biggest laughs my husband (and Eagle colleague) and I had over Thanksgiving were every time my father, who was a guest in our home, went off about “the media.”
We were like, “Ah, dad, you know you’re talking about us, right?”
Then, a friend who I consider to be very bright had me to dinner the other night and also blamed “the media” for making things seem worse than they are these days.
Seriously? It seems like there are new layoffs nationally and locally to report every day. Companies are either canceling plans or putting them on hold. Some are going bankrupt or are closing.
This is the media’s fault? I think that’s called blaming the messenger.
How bad things are is relative, of course. And there’s certainly a case to be made that bad news leads to more concern and cost-cutting and that, in turn, leads to more bad news.
But we wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t report what’s happening. That’s called news.
Sorry, Dad.
There was some good news to come out this morning from the Federal Reserve.
Households are paying down their debt for the first time in 56 years.
I say it’s good because maybe the masses are beginning to realize that overextending themselves to keep up with the Joneses isn’t a good thing.
Of course the downside is that they aren’t out their spending as much on products and services, the fuel for our nation’s economy.
Maybe the economic downturn has created a much needed “correction” in society. Just like a correction in the stock market.
Today’s recap of the carnage Tuesday on Wichita streets is a little startling, isn’t it? As someone who spent two hours Tuesday trying to survive some of the dumbest winter driving I’ve ever seen, I can assure you that the quotes in the story aren’t hyperbole.
But there’s a silver lining for a business somewhere in every dark cloud, even if the cloud is man-made. Can’t you imagine the backlog today at the city’s major body shops?
Kansas’ Capitol Federal Savings was lauded this morning on NBC’s Today Show as “the little bank that could.”
The Topeka-based thrift was held up as an example of a financial institution that held true to its values and high standards “even when it seemed nothing could go wrong.”
The story shouldn’t come as a surprise to Eagle readers. In fact, Eagle banking reporter Jerry Siebenmark traveled to Topeka earlier this year and wrote about Cap Fed for a story that appeared in the Feb. 7 issue of Business Today.
It is nice, however, to see a local bank get some national recognition for doing things right. It’s also being recognized on Wall Street, where its stock (CFFN) is up about 35 percent in the past year. The S&P 500 is down about 40 percent in the same period.
My only criticism about the story: Why is it that national reporters always have to bring up Dorothy?