To: Uncle Frank who started this subject
From: stomper Friday, Apr 7, 2000 1:53 PM ET
Respond to Post # 11616 of 11648
Gee, really Alan?:
Looks like someone in the political machine hit him over the head with the election year bat.
Greenspan: Rising Output Curbs Inflation
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Friday that rising productivity was helping curb inflation in the U.S. economy and there was a good chance that technology can keep productivity rates growing.
In remarks prepared for delivery to a National Technology Forum in St. Louis, Mo., Greenspan said an investment boom in information technology was starting to pay off in increased output that also has kept cost increases in check.
``Despite the surge in demand, unit labor costs over the past year have barely budged, and pricing power has remained well contained,' Greenspan said in remarks that repeated key themes from a speech he made at a White House conference on the 'New Economy' on Wednesday.
He said the U.S. central bank must keep inflationary pressures in check, adding that five incremental increases in the federal funds rate since last June had been necessary to prevent an ``inflationary expansion of liquidity.'
Speak your mind
Discuss this story with other people.
[Start a Conversation]
(Requires Yahoo! Messenger)
Keeping low and stable inflation ``provides the greatest opportunity for the dramatic increases in structural productivity to show through fully into higher standards of living,' Greenspan said.
The Fed chief sounded an optimistic note for the future. He said not only was industry was finding new ways to apply technology but also that developments like greater Internet use implied ``continuing synergies (that) support a distinct possibility that total productivity growth rates will remain high or even increase further.'
However, Greenspan did not mention stock prices, a major theme of Wednesday's speech, in which he warned that sharp gains in equity prices risked fostering inflation.
|
