It’s a bird, it’s a plane
The heroes of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York are again set to sweep into classrooms on their mission to educate American schoolchildren about economics and monetary policy.
The bank this month released its eighth adventure-laden comic book, The Story of Foreign Trade and Exchange, to help students and the general public decipher such banking concepts as comparative advantage. (“Federal Government Takes Cues From Popular Culture,” Sept. 25, 1996).
The Federal Reserve Bank has published comic-style books since the 1950s, and some have had reprints of more than 1 million copies. “They’re very popular with educators and students,” said G. Douglas Tillett, a spokesman for the federal bank.
This year’s adventure takes readers to a mythical country, Jeansland, where the currency is denim, to demonstrate the workings of the exchange rate and international currencies.
Copies of the comic book for classroom use are free. For general use, up to 35 free copies are available. To order, write the publications department at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 33 Liberty St., New York, NY 10045.
Pomp and policy
It’s almost time for President Clinton to don his cap and gown.
Mr. Clinton will be the commencement speaker at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., on May 22, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge on June 5, and Portland State University in Oregon on June 13.
The president traditionally speaks at one military academy, one public institution, and one private college every year. In past years, Mr. Clinton has chosen the commencement addresses to unveil policies and programs. Last year, he announced the start of his race dialogue at the University of California, San Diego. At Princeton University in New Jersey in 1996, he proposed tax credits to pay for the first two years of college education--a plan that became a centerpiece of his re-election campaign and one of his major accomplishments in 1997.
--JOETTA L. SACK & DAVID J. HOFF
