THE PROFESSOR AND A PIECE OF STRING -- Just A Minute Radio for Monday 100830

            Good day folks – Great to have you with us at the week’s beginning.

 

            Today’s program I owe to a dear friend who’s with the Lord now.  I went back to University after graduation just to take a couple of his courses. He was from an Iowa farming community – went off to World War II and ran a supply depot or something like it… and returned to finish his career with an American Farm Equipment manufacturing company – I’m not sure of all the details.

 

            But I wanted to learn something about economics – in broadcasting I’d learned a lot about how to do it – but not a lot about the subject matters with which one has to deal in news broadcasting.  My friend was a Midwesterner with a dry sense of humor and I to this day recall his straightforward way of lecturing in a homespun way.  By now he had retired…. And decided he didn’t like retirement and came to the University’s Business School.  He gave me a new perspective on something I thought was dry as dust – but he made it lively and interesting – and I still quote him a lot.

 

            In my mind he was a master in his subject matter – but very straightforward and not hesitant to give you a straightforward answer if you asked a question you should have thought about before.  But he was intent on seeing his students do well in the business world, as well as do good – and he was successful at both. He was a Christian businessman with high ethical standards and a rigid dedication to getting work done, on time and under budget. His memory remains in my hall of famous men.

 

            Thanks for being here today.

 

            Cordially IN HIM

 

            Jack

 

Delayed audio link:

 

http://www.wmuu.com/blog/category/audio/just-a-minute/

 

 

“JUST A MINUTE”

THE PROFESSOR AND A PIECE OF STRING

Just a Minute: -- My old economics professor was a World War Two vet who had come back home, rescued a failing farm-equipment family, and done well financially in the process. 

Our class was struggling with the Keynes theory of controlling economic ups and downs. He showed it to us like this: (voice)  “Well the Federal Reserve is pretty good at pullin’ the string – putting on the brakes to hold back or slow down inflation: but not good at all at pressing the accelerator to make demand ‘perk up’ – getting people to buy things again.” He said --”Think of it like this… It’s like tying a string to something… you can pull it – but it’s a tough job to try and push it… string just doesn’t push things easily. That’s why the Fed can put on the brakes… but it’s hard to increase demand -- get things to movin’. The string just doesn’t do the job.”

I just wish the economics wiz-kids around the President had the chance to hear my old economics Professor.

<> I’m Jack Buttram. (END)

Jebco Editorial Service

www.wmuu.com

e-mail n4zhk@arrl.net