> Re Louis's FT quote: "'Hurricane Long-Term blew through our markets
> with such force that many
> were left homeless...'"
The media's response to this is interesting. While the NYT and WSJ publishes articles there is hardly anything anywhere on TV. I personally find this far more interesting than the entire Clinton affair which has micro--media discussion. I expect extremely sparse coverage. Like S & L this should be a major embarassment to the financial establishment, the usual conservative propaganda is government shouldn't have ability to spend funds because of lack of competance. LTCM deligitimizes finance Capital and Capitalism debunking their competence in general and hence reporting details is dangerous. Suppose Clinton or Rubin spent 4.5 billion dollars in two months of Federal Money on off track betting on the horses and lost it all. Suppose their argument was that they had psyched out the track having a reliable system and usually won. The President would be impeached by now. The difference in coverage is vintage Chomsky.
As for Fed and Fed watching its hard to know what was going on. I saw Lyle Gramley on TV last night. He said the Fed was going to lower but very reluctantly. The Fed I think hates tight labor for usual industrial reasons.... . In addition, I think for power reasons I would think they would prefer deflation, as the debt becomes more valuable their control on the economy becomes stronger.
I have a question about FOMC. How often are their meetings? Probably the "key" activity of the Fed is to control interest rates by buying and selling bonds. Can Greenspan get on the phone to the NY desk and ask the Fed to Buy bonds entirely privately in the event Markets go through the floor. Do we in fact have taped meetings or just transcripts? Doesn't WSJ publish weakly accountings of Fed Activity so one can see what they do other than set interest rates as opposed to what they say?
--mike -- Michael Cohen mike at cns.bu.edu Work: 677 Beacon, Street, Rm313 Boston, Mass 02115 Home: 25 Stearns Rd, #3 Brookline, Mass 02146 Tel-Work: 617-353-9484 Tel-Home:617-734-8828 Tel-FAX:617-353-7755