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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (43463)	9/12/2002 12:31:58 PM
From: SirRealist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

>>Mr Blair makes a brave case for Africa but the White House is not interested<< AIDS will kill more than Hussein ever will. But saving those lives is not a strategic interest. Niebuhr is right about idealism on both sides. The dissension of Brooks lacks the objectivity to be taken seriously: theatlantic.com

To: stockman_scott who wrote (43463)	9/12/2002 12:37:27 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Respond to of 281500

OT Do you think Greenspan is urging GW to drop his weapons and come to his senses? I do. Greenspan has eye on spending WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday the U.S. economy has weathered the impact from falling stock markets, lower investment and the Sept. 11 attacks well so far, but warned a swift return to government spending discipline was vital for economic health. "To date, the economy appears to have withstood this set of blows well, although the depressing effects still linger and continue to influence, in particular, the federal budget outlook," Greenspan said in testimony prepared for delivery before the House Budget Committee. He warned that a return to large and extended deficit spending by the government could risk driving interest rates higher and imperil economic fundamentals. In his prepared remarks, the Fed chief appeared to be trying to persuade lawmakers to refocus efforts on keeping spending under strict control. He made only a passing reference to the current economic situation and offered no clues to policymakers' thinking ahead of the Sept. 24 scheduled meeting of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee. Portions of Greenspan's testimony echoed his remarks to Congress in July when he similarly said that it will take time for the economy to work through the shocks it has suffered. Financial market participants, who had been intently awaiting Greenspan's comments for hints of his assessment of economic prospects, expressed disappointment at its narrow focus. "It's a bit of a wet firecracker," said economist Richard Yamarone of Argus Research in New York. "We were expecting some insight on the economy and we didn't get that." The economy has been in a halting and uneven recovery from the 2001 recession, prompting some concerns that it could again tip into a slump. Greenspan's appearance, scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. ET, was delayed by votes on the House floor. Greenspan cautioned that if the United States returned to a period of continuous large spending deficits, there would be serious consequences for the country's economic prospects. "History suggests that an abandonment of fiscal discipline will eventually push up interest rates, crowd out capital spending, lower productivity growth and force harder choices upon us in the future," the Fed chairman said in his first appearance before Congress since mid-July. The U.S. government is expected to post its first full-year budget deficit since 1997 for the fiscal year ending this month. The erosion of government surpluses has been in part blamed on President Bush's tax cut package passed last year — the idea of which Greenspan supported in congressional testimony at the beginning of 2001. The Fed chief on Thursday noted that some budget restraint rules were set to expire on Sept. 30. "Failing to preserve them would be a grave mistake," he said, "for without clear direction and constructive goals, the in-built political bias in favor of budget deficits likely will again become entrenched." Greenspan's testimony falls one day after the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. It had been scheduled to start at nearly the same time as President Bush was to address the United Nations on Iraq, pressing the U.S. case that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is a threat to global stability. Uneasiness over the Bush team's drive to win other nations' support for the ousting of Saddam and fears that vital Middle East oil supplies could be disrupted by such an action have heightened financial market volatility in recent weeks. Should a supply interruption force oil prices up from their current range around $30 a barrel, it could be a significant added drag on the world's largest economy at a time when it is only crawling ahead. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------