An Email is Worth a Thousand Words … or Maybe Even More

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Let's be real - in the era of electronic communications, emails are often newsmakers. These days, it's not uncommon for a series of emails to be THE main source for news writers. Take for example a recent CNNMoney.com headline that declared, "Email shows Fed strong-armed BofA." As Bank of America (BofA) CEO Ken Lewis prepared to appear on Capitol Hill last week, this reporter had obtained recently-released emails that "... detail the pressure the Fed put on BofA to complete its merger with Merrill Lynch."

In a single set of emails, we learn:

• "Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had suggested to another Fed official that ‘management is gone,' if BofA managers tried to flee the deal and later on needed further government assistance."
• "Bernanke called BofA's threat to pull out of the deal a ‘bargaining chip,' saying ‘we do not see it as a very likely scenario.'"
• "Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker said that Bernanke considered Bank of America's threat to pull out ‘irrelevant' and ‘not credible.'"

With all that has transpired as a result of our nation's current financial crisis, I imagine this is only the first of many emails that will be analyzed and chronicled by the media. It's also strange to realize that in the decades to come, many of these messages and articles will likely be re-read by our children and grandchildren as they report on the 2009 Economic Crisis to their teachers and classmates.[i]

Or, perhaps only folks who work at archiving companies ponder such things? ;-)

[i]Dugdale, Amy A. "An Email is Worth a Thousand Words ... or Maybe Even More." Weblog post. LiveOffice Blog. 17 June 2009. 17 June 2009 http://blog.liveoffice.com/.