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To: Les H who wrote (65522)	12/30/2000 8:08:10 PM
From: iod_sherwood	Respond to of 99985

Saturday December 30, 3:29 pm Eastern Time Chicago Fed's Moskow Sees No Recession CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. economic growth is slowing, but the economy is not heading toward a recession, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago said in a newspaper interview this weekend, reiterating a view he has previously expressed. Chicago Fed President Michael Moskow declined to say whether the Fed will cut interest rates, the Chicago Sun-Times said in its Sunday editions. The Fed's interest-rate setting body, the Federal Open Market Committee, warned on Dec. 19 that the economy was slowing so fast that there was a risk of a sharp downturn, a signal the central bank was preparing to cut rates soon. Moskow will be a voting member on the FOMC in 2001. ``I can tell you that we will be monitoring very carefully all the various indicators (of economic performance) ... and gathering a host of anecdotal information as well,'' Moskow told the Sun-Times. ``And we'll be prepared to do what's best for the American people.'' Moskow noted that the housing market has stayed ``at a very high level,'' while businesses can still borrow and spend money, despite higher interest rates. Also, despite layoffs announced by many companies in recent months, those workers can still be absorbed into other jobs, he said. ``We may see a certain number of layoffs that get a lot of publicity,'' Moskow said. ``But if the economy is still expanding and total jobs (created) are still going up, say 100,000 to 200,000 a month, then those people are being absorbed into the economy and other jobs.'' Moskow said the Fed is carefully watching rising energy prices. ``In essence, it's like a tax increase,'' he said. ``It hurts businesses as well, increases their costs. It's one of the elements of the risk that we see toward weaker economic growth going forward.'' Moskow said earlier this month that he did not see a significant risk of recession, though there has been slowing in the economy. A Chicago Fed spokesperson could not be reached to comment on the Sun-Times article. biz.yahoo.com