[lbo-talk] at the CFR, again

[Doug Henwood]

I went to another one of those breakfast confabs at the Council on 
Foreign Relations this morning - this one on the world economic 
scene, with Lewis Alexander (managing director, Citigroup), John 
Lipsky (chief economist, JP Morgan Chase), and Stephen Roach (chief 
economist, Morgan Stanley). Roach was his usual fairly pessimistic 
self; the others were pretty optimistic about a U.S. economic 
recovery later this year. Lipsky thought that the U.S. budget deficit 
wasn't a long-term problem because a second Bush admin would take 
care of the spending cuts (which would have to be enormous, but that 
didn't trouble him). Only Roach thought the U.S. current account 
deficit was a serious problem.

Most memorable quote of the morning: Alexander, who thought Lula was 
elected in Brazil precisely because he endorsed the IMF program, said 
"Lula's elecction consolidated the base of support for conventional 
economic policy in Brazil." He's encouraged that the new Argentine 
government will follow Lula's model, and not Chavez'.

Doug