Cassidy in New Yorker

[Brad De Long]

>I read Cassidy's piece last night. After talking up the possibility of a
>crash, he then closes with a reassuring quote from Milton Friedman, of all
>people. "'I suspect we will have a recession when the bubble bursts.' But,
>he added, 'It need not be more than am ild recession - if the Fed does its
>job.'" So why devote thousands of words to evoking the dramatic parallel
>with 1929 to end on such a whimper?
>
>Cassidy also assures us that the Fed will tighten, perhaps as soon as next
>week. This is a minority view, but he speaks with the authority of a
>leakee. Wonder how he knows this.
>
>Doug

I don't think he does--I think John Berry of the _Washington Post_ gets all
the good Federal Reserve leaks. Tightening would seriously disappoint the
IMF, which the Federal Reserve has been willing to accomodate in the past...

But they might do it...

Brad DeLong