Alan Greenspan, Leftie...

Brad De Long delong at econ.Berkeley.EDU
Fri May 15 10:54:31 PDT 1998


I must say I never expected to see this of someone who in the early 1980s used to criticize Paul Volcker for being an inflation dove...

Washington Wire

GREENSPAN FACES a potential showdown at Tuesday's Fed meeting.

For months, the chairman's resistance to higher interest rates and scant evidence of rising price

inflation have kept the Fed from boosting rates. But the economy's momentum and the

plunging jobless rate make some Fed officials uneasy about inflation risks. At 4.3%, the

jobless rate is at the lowest peacetime level since 1957.

Greenspan has said little in public about the economy since the report that Fed officials in

March had agreed to lean toward higher rates. He has enough clout to delay a rate rise if he

expects the economy to slow soon. Worries about jittery financial markets in Asia also argue

for holding off until the Fed's July 1 meeting or beyond.



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