ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996 TAG: 9609090027
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: DAVID E. KALISH ASSOCIATED PRESS
MONETARY ECONOMICS is the subject cartoon bankers and ordinary Americans tackle in the new Fed booklet. It is aimed at high school and college students.
Inflation goes up! OOOFFF! Interest rates rise! BAMMM!
The white-shirt economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have put out a comic book to explain monetary economics to America's high school and college students. And, perhaps, the rest of us.
In panel after panel, the new Fed booklet shows square-jawed policy-makers struggling alongside ordinary Americans through inflation and other economic woes.
Central bankers don't expect teen-agers to be chatting up ``banking system liquidity'' and ``open market operations'' in the same breath as Spiderman and Wonderwoman. But they do hope to teach kids some pretty adult concepts.
``Economics, as we know, is not the most popular subject. It has a reputation as being the dismal science,'' said comic book author Ed Steinberg, an economics professor who also works in the New York Fed's communications department.
``We're trying to make the material more palatable.''
Like Superman trying to protect the world from evil, the Federal Reserve Bank adjusts interest rates and regulates reserves in the banking system to try to keep inflation from shooting out of control and to make sure banks have enough money to loan consumers and businesses.
In explaining this, the Fed bankers don't hesitate to poke fun of themselves, taking aim at their image as a secretive, monolithic organization of regulators and economists.
To illustrate that governors of the nation's central bank serve 14-year terms, a Fed banker ages from one frame to another. He goes bald, his office plants grow, and the photos on his desk portray tots who have grown into adults. The only items that stay the same are his striped tie, dark suit and thin-rimmed glasses - apparent staples of Fed governor garb.
The Fed has been distributing comic-book style booklets on everything from banks to saving money since the 1950s. But the latest addition, coming to schools this fall, tackles ``The Story of Monetary Policy,'' one of the more complex subjects.
``In order to attract the kids' attention, it has to look funny,'' said the illustrator, Norman Nodel.
Nodel also had fun with the project. Many of the images are ``campy,'' paying humorous homage to retro American culture. Cars and computers are seen as boxy. One banker sports a pencil-thin moustache.
That humor plays more to the teachers than the students.
``I don't think the kids really get the humor. I get the humor. I'm also teaching in an inner-city high school,'' said Nina Wohl, who has used Fed booklets for her economics classes at Louis D. Brandeis High School on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
The comics are being offered to economics, social studies and other high school and college classes. The first 35 copies are free for teachers; after that the cost is 25 cents each booklet - a bargain compared to the latest Archie. To order copies, call the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at (212) 720-6134.
``Who would have thought that they of all people would come up with a cartoon book?'' said Nodel, the illustrator. ``After all, the Federal Reserve is such a revered and staid organization.''
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. The bright cover of the Fed's book (left)by CNBexplaining monetary policy is anything but austere. 2. It is 23
pages long and will be coming to classes this fall. The comic book's
author, Ed Steinberg, says it tries "to make the material more
palatable." And teachers say the booklet doesn't hesitate to make
fun of itself. color.