Financial crisis feeds advice columns, shows

When American consumers start worrying about the economy and their personal finances, some call their financial adviser. The rest turn to advice columns, radio shows and websites for reassurance.

"It is an avalanche. I've never seen anything like it, it's crazy," said Tess Vigeland, host of a show called Marketplace Money, which runs on public radio stations around the United States. "Email has at least tripled, if not quadrupled."

With Washington and Wall Street gripped by the US financial crisis and headlines screaming about bankrupt banks and insurers, financial advisers - especially those in the public eye - are being swamped.

Teresa Dixon Murray, who writes a weekly column about personal finance at the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper, said she hasn't gotten so many calls and emails in her 10 years as a financial reporter.

"It's been pretty much my life since late March, and as far as the last week and a half - I've definitely seen more worry and concern from consumers," said Murray. "There's a feeling of helplessness that nobody seems to have the answers."

Surge of interests

A surge in e-mails and audience interest on top of what is surely the biggest story of a career would excite any business journalist, but Vigeland said her fascination with the crisis is tempered by the knowledge that so many listeners are depending on her radio show for advice and reassurance.

"It's a two-sided coin," said Vigeland. "Right now for me as a personal finance journalist, there is an intellectual fascination with what's happening and I go home every night and my head is spinning."

But Vigeland knows many people rely on programs like hers for advice - despite her standard reminder to listeners to consult their own financial advisers before making decisions.

"All the stories we're getting from listeners of fear and 'Oh my God, the headlines are terrifying' - that gets to you," Vigeland said. "So it's not just trying to absorb the magnitude of it, but also really feeling like there is a responsibility here to help people."

Murray said she can't begin to answer the hundreds of calls and e-mails she gets every week, and has tried to address the most common fears in her weekly columns: which bank accounts and investments are insured, where money is safest, what the proposed federal bailout is trying to accomplish.

She's most distressed by the tales she hears of people who have hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings accounts - and of those who are so worried about a run on banks that they are withdrawing their cash and taking it home.

"It's completely irrational fear," said Murray. She said she tells them what she'd tell her mom: stick to a sensible investment plan, hold a diverse portfolio, don't panic and cash out unless you really can't sleep at night.

Agencies

(China Daily 09/27/2008 page10)