Maybe If His Employer Could Balance A Budget…

What’s it take to buy a yo-yo or a jump rope with plastic? Evidently a $123,000 salary and a seat on the Federal Reserve Board doesn’t cut it.

Fed board member Lawrence B. Lindsey found out last month that the Bank of New York rejected his application for a Toys R Us credit card. Lindsey took the rejection in good humor today as he testified, ironically, about problems of banks’ aggressive marketing of credit cards.

“The reason I got turned down was there had been too many requests of my credit history by banks,” Lindsey told a forum on credit card problems, sponsored by Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass.

Asked how much he shops at Toys R Us, Lindsey laughed and replied, “I have a 4-year-old and 2-year-old, so it’s quite a bit.”

Lindsey, who has spoken out in the past against the practice of letting credit-scoring computer programs decide who gets loans or credit cards, said no thanks when the bank realized whom it had rejected and offered to issue him a card with a $15,000 line of credit.