Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Bartlett who wrote (49710)	2/27/2000 6:04:00 PM
From: baystock	Respond to of 116779

Globe Staff Remember economic slowdowns and major market corrections? They were regular features of economic life before we reached Nirvana sometime in the mid-1990s. But with Alan Greenspan's new harder-edge policy at the Federal Reserve, the chances of seeing them again have increased. Greenspan has put the Fed on a collision course with the economy and the stock market, heightening the odds that the current period of perfection will end not with a whimper, but with a bang. 'The ante is higher and the risks going forward are greater,' said Mark Zandi, chief economist at RFA Dismal Sciences. Greenspan was back on Capitol Hill yesterday, repeating testimony he gave last week. That testimony is worth reading. Greenspan has been saying for some time that the economy is too strong and that it needs to slow down. The Fed has raised rates four times now in response to that strength, but so far there is precious little evidence the economy is slowing down. Greenspan isn't happy about that. In his remarks, he sounds the way your father might when he has reminded you four times to clean up your room but you still haven't done it. 'This time I mean business, young man.' Greenspan didn't say that. He did say, however, that we have developed a set of imbalances that 'unless contained threaten our continuing prosperity.' One of those imbalances is the labor market, which is running out of workers to fill open jobs. No one knows how low the jobless rate can go without triggering inflation, but Greenspan and company clearly have decided the current rate, 4 percent, is too low. The other imbalance is the stock market. Greenspan didn't say stocks have to come down. Yesterday, he said the Fed wasn't specifically targeting stock prices. But he did say the stock market was contributing to the too-strong economy and that asset values - stock prices - should 'increase no faster than household incomes.' Said Wayne Ayers, chief economist at FleetBoston Financial Corp.: 'The only way he can slow the economy is to take some steam out of the equity market.' Ayers's metaphor - taking some steam out of the economy - implies a certain level of precision. So does 'tapping on the brakes.' So does 'soft landing,' a phrase Greenspan used yesterday before Congress. The idea is that the Fed has the power to fine-tune the economy and the stock market to bring about the desired results. But does it, really? Or is monetary policy actually a crude instrument that could bludgeon the market and the economy, rather than just poke it? Thomas O'Neill, chief investment officer at FleetBoston, isn't optimistic. O'Neill believes the technology stock market is a speculative bubble that is bound to burst. 'You just don't let a little air out of a bubble,' he said. The fear is that euphoria could give way to extreme pessimism, sending the stock market into a steep dive. Is that likely? Who knows? Is it possible? Why not? Toppling the economy probably would require a harder push. The US economy expanded at nearly a 6 percent pace in the second half of 1999. The Fed would be more comfortable with a growth rate between 3 and 4 percent. But could the Fed overshoot and get a more severe slowdown than it wants? Some investors must think so. The stocks that represent the old economy - banks, home builders, retailers, manufacturers - have been in a steep decline for months. According to Ned Riley, chief investment officer at State Street Global Advisors, the Standard & Poor's index of regional bank stocks is down 36 percent from its 1999 high; the index of home-building stocks is down 43 percent; department store stocks are down 38 percent. 'A lot of these stocks act as if they are discounting a recession-like scenario,' Riley said. He doesn't foresee that recession. Nor does any other forecaster. But parts of the stock market are nervous, and it is not hard to see why. The more resistant the stock market and the economy prove to be to Greenspan's efforts to restrain them, the more he is going to have to raise rates to get what he wants. The Fed chairman couldn't have been too happy yesterday when the Nasdaq index soared after he spoke. The higher rates go, the greater the chance that the desired soft landing turns into a hard one instead. 'We are in uncharted territory,' said FleetBoston's O'Neill. Let's hope Greenspan has a map to get us through it.

To: Mark Bartlett who wrote (49710)	2/27/2000 7:23:00 PM
From: Ahda	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116779

The most remarkable thing i found about Canada was their people. When i lived there i found a sense of respect for all and vast knowledge about other nations. Canadians are very well educated about the rest of the world. It is maybe up to Canada to educate the rest of the world about Canada in the respectful manner, in which her people try to live.

To: Mark Bartlett who wrote (49710)	2/27/2000 7:31:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116779

As far as the medical systems go, Canada's is still superior, if viewed in the context of years of life expectancy. >>> Nonsense. Apple and Oranges. Canada will be overwelmed in less than 1 week if saddled with magnitude of Indigent Care that exist in the US

To: Mark Bartlett who wrote (49710)	2/28/2000 9:01:00 AM
From: Enigma	Respond to of 116779

Yes his attitude towards Europe is clouded in the same manner. An old 'red' hater?