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

To: Ahda who wrote (16295)	8/21/1998 11:56:00 AM
From: Alex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116795

It's a mad, mad world : - )................. STREET'S CRAZY TO THINK CLINTON SCANDAL IS FADING By JOHN CRUDELE ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WALL Street thinks the Washington scandal situation has stabilized, and Wall Street is crazy. The stock market rose sharply early this week because, the experts said, investors were happy that the Washington scandal will slow now that President Clinton has finally confessed to doing naughty things with Monica Lewinsky. First, let's review what really happened this week. Equities did stage a large relief rally, but only after the Federal Reserve stepped in Monday morning and headed off a disaster. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 50 points in the hours before Clinton appeared before a grand jury when suddenly and unexpectedly, the Fed made a bold move to repurchase $6.82 billion in government securities. This move, in effect, takes money out of the Fed's pocket and puts it into the monetary system. It has a similar effect to a cut in interest rates. And such a move almost always results in a rally. Wednesday's decision to leave interest rates at current levels was less important than the Fed's repo. And from what I know is coming, it's probably a very good thing that the Fed is on the alert. The problem, however, is that no amount of government watchfulness (or even intervention) can keep a free market from going in the direction it is going to go. Here's what you can expect in the coming weeks, months and maybe even - God forbid - years. As I said in Monday's column, snitch Linda Tripp was introduced to Ken Starr's office as someone with a story about drugs in the White House. Nobody said Clinton was doing them. I'm told by a source who has been reliable, that this may have been the line of questioning that reportedly flustered the president badly during his testimony Monday. Now that Clinton has admitted to having an affair with Lewinsky, the rest of the information trail laid by Tripp would obviously be given greater credibility by investigators. And Wall Street should remember that there is still the no-small-matter of the impeachment report that is heading toward's Congress' anxious and nervous hands. There have been numerous conflicting stories in the press about the size of the report. The truth is that it can be as long, or as short, as Starr wants it to be. The bulk of the investigation is about crimes - many of which are financial in nature - and the cover-up of those crimes. It adds up to a racketeering case. This might find its way into the report, or it may not. That's because most of the wrongdoing Starr has found occurred during Clinton's years as Arkansas governor, according to my sources. They say Starr is looking into whether some of the offenses were the subject of a cover-up after he was elected president. One possibility, I'm told, is for these crimes to be handled in criminal courts with Bill Clinton being treated as an unindicted co-conspirator. Or the prosecutor may decide to make him the first sitting president ever to be indicted and then let the Supreme Court worry about the constitutional issues. Even if these Arkansas-based crimes aren't in Starr's impeachment report, the information will readily be available to Congress. The list of material Starr has dredged up against Bill Clinton is enormous (four years worth), and much is very embarrassing. For instance, I've said in this column before that Starr's investigators asked at least one Arkansas state trooper for information on what they said was "the day Bill Clinton overdosed" and whether he was ever treated for a problem with drugs. I wouldn't be surprised if this subject came up before the grand jury last Monday. And I wouldn't be surprised if Bill Clinton refused to answer those questions. So, you see, Wall Street's relief is very premature. nypostonline.com