NAM

Max Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Wed Jan 17 10:55:58 PST 2001


There intensity level varies, like everyone else's, depending on what's going on. Right now they all have a bit more to be happy about.

In 1994 at the height of anti-G sentiment, Jerry J. of NAM did a joint forum with the AFL, EPI, a former head of American Express, and Joel Popkin. Everyone ranted against the Fed and finanz kapital. The AMEX guy spoke of ways the Government could jam the bond market people if they tried to block reflation. Unfortunately I've forgotten the details of that part.

mbs

I've long wondered why the National Association of Manufacturers never misses a chance to call for lower interest rates - but, at the same time, this position has so little resonance at the elite political level. It's not something you hear from, say, the Business Roundtable. I suspect it's that of the Association's 14,000 members, 10,000 are "small and medium-sized." The easy money crowd has the numbers, but not the capital - so the trade association makes noise, but there's not much of an echo. If the Fortune 500 were seriously opposed to the drift of Fed policy, we'd hear a lot more about it than we do.

Curiously, there's not a mention of interest rates in NAM's pro-growth agenda <http://www.nam.org/tertiary.asp?TrackID=&CategoryID=419&DocumentID=20968>. Dereg, lower taxes, a weaker EPA, yes. Not a word about Alan G though.

Doug



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