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Politics : Kenneth Starr denies his probe was politically motivated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (96)	6/24/1999 5:22:00 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 470

GROUP OF US HILL DEMOCRATS SET TO URGE FED NOT TO HIKE RATES 12:43 EDT 06/24 --Senior Democrats on House Banking Committee, Joint Economic Panel Set to Urge Fed Not to Act Preemptively --Democrats May Be Seeking to Prevent Second Round of Tightening in August By John Shaw WASHINGTON (MktNews) - A group of House Democrats will hold a briefing Thursday afternoon to urge the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee not to increase interest rates in its coming meeting. However, the group's real goal may be to prevent a possible second tightening move by the Fed later this summer. Several senior Democrats on the House Banking panel will be joined at the briefing by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume. The ranking Democrat on the House Banking panel, Rep. John LaFalce, will be joined at the briefing by other top Democrats on the panel such as Rep. Bruce Vento and Rep. Barney Frank as well as Rep. Pete Stark, the senior Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee. The Democratic lawmakers are likely to echo arguments offered last week by Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa. In a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Harkin urged him to "continue the progressive monetary policy the FOMC has been following." "Mr. Chairman, please do not change your current policy of waiting until real signs of inflation appear in the economy before raising interest rates," Harkin said to Greenspan. "Raising short term interest rates at this point would be premature and could have very negative effects not only on the U.S. economy, but on the economies of several struggling economies around the world," he added. The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee is scheduled to meet on June 29 and June 30 and is expected to increase the federal funds target rate by at least 25 basis points from the current level of 4.75%. There is considerable speculation that a second round of tightening could occur at the FOMC's August meeting.