Well, his enemies are everywhere, so he must constantly be on guard. It's a dangerous world out here! <g>
I am beginning to wonder if Alan Greenspan may not, after all, succeed in gradually deflating the stock market bubble, or bubbles. Ever since it becamse clear that there was not going to be a Y2K panic (how much longer will anyone remember that delusion?) the money supply has been kept on a quite steady course, firm, but neither drastically contracting nor expanding unreasonably. As a stock market bear, I wouldn't mind seeing a big pop, but as a US citizen, I think that a gradually impoverishment of those holding imaginary wealth would be more salutary.
The tight spot that the Fed is headed for, however, is what to do when the CPI figures start reflecting energy costs, and when both producers and workers begin expecting higher prices and wages. The only thing they know to do is to raise interest rates, and that could turn this leaky blimp of a market into a Hindenberg. |
