[conservativecorner]

Let it fall. The administration has been talking down the dollar for a good while so that our trade imbalance would show an improvement, and it fights deflation because it makes foreign goods more expensive. I still believe the watch word at the Fed is deflation even when they talk inflation.

[FITZ]

and it fights deflation because it makes foreign goods more expensive.

I thought the whole purpose of the free trade that's been crammed down our throats was so that foreign goods would become cheap and we would somehow benefit from that. Now you mean to tell us that foreign goods becoming more expensive is really the way to go?

[Dalite]

"I still believe the watch word at the Fed is deflation even when they talk inflation."

I also believe that deflation is their major concern.

I think Greenspan will try to get interest rates up to 6 to 7% as quickly as possible.

This will help to slow inflation, while getting the lending rate up high enough that deflation becomes less of a concern.

Also, the higher and the quicker the rates go up, the more "wiggle room" he leaves himself for the trademark "soft landing".