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Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (10478)	5/20/2000 6:32:00 PM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13582

"I dont know how much capital equipment can truly replace so many lowskilled jobs. . ." The safety valve on the low employment rate is not entirely the substitution of capital for low skilled jobs but the availability of lower cost labor in developing countries. We lose labor intensive jobs paying low wages and instead get higher paying jobs whose wage earners benefit from the lower priced imported goods. This in turn keeps THEIR wages more reasonable in terms of purchasing power. Anything that increases overhead costs to individuals must reduce their purchasing power. Thus, higher oil prices, local and state taxes, as well as interest rate increases all achieve the same result -- reducing disposable income. If the Federal Reserve looks only at the dampening effect of interest rates, and not the other overhead costs embedded in the market basket of goods and services that the individual must pay for, like it or not, then the Fed is making a big error. I'm afraid that is the case.