Fed Chief Sees Decline Over; House Passes Recovery Bill
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
nytimes.com
WASHINGTON, March 7 — Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, effectively declared the recession over today, saying a spate of recent economic news suggested that the recovery "is already well under way."
His assessment, which was notably more upbeat and less hedged than his last public comments on the economy just eight days ago, was seconded by the Bush administration's chief economist, R. Glenn Hubbard.
"I think we do have a recovery under way," Mr. Hubbard, the chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, said at a news conference, where he predicted the rebound to be modest in the first half of the year, followed by a more pronounced upturn in the second half.
Hours after Mr. Greenspan's remarks, the House overwhelmingly passed a scaled-back version of legislation originally intended to help pull the economy out of recession but now recast by the two parties as an effort to deal with the aftermath and assure that the recovery takes hold. |
