ALAN'S HELP MAY BACKFIRE ON BUSH

New York Post ^ | 2/02/03 | TERRY KEENAN

[kattracks]

IT was 10 years ago this week that Alan Greenspan made a cameo appearance at President Clinton's first State of the Union address, sitting alongside First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in what was the beginning of a cozy relationship between the Fed chief and the Clinton White House.

[graycamel]

Just imagine if the president had the power to raise taxes on a whim every time the government needed money, and lowered them again when the budget is balanced. I think Greenspan actually lowered interest rates too low during the last recession. Now he can't lower them anymore and will have to come up with new ways to stimulate the economy. Then again, I think he's done all he can do. It's time for congress to act. No, I'm not one of the "1913" kooks who decry the existence of the federal reserve...Taking it out of the hands of the politicians who could manipulate the money supply for their own mob bosses and reelection campaigns was one of the best things congress ever did.

[snippy_about_it]

Alan Greenspan needs to go and soon.

[Moonman62]

As interest-rate guru James Grant often points out, recessions are a painful but important necessity that cleanse the system...

Not really. The cleansing process is there even in good economic times, it's just less noticeable. In bad economic times there's much less good news to divert our attention from the cleansing process, and people pay much more attention to bad news, anyway.

[meenie]

There are no men that should be regulating the supply of money. That is called counterfeiting. Money should be based on a scarce material that cannot be made by commercial means. Silver, gold, plutonium, etc.