[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 114 (Monday, August 15, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 15, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER

  Mr. DeCONCINI. Mr. President, I do not necessarily believe everything 
I read in the paper. And I certainly do not believe everything Mr. 
Greenspan has to say. But the overwhelming weight of what I hear is 
that Mr. Greenspan and the Federal Reserve are planning on raising 
interest rates again.
  Do not do it, Mr. Greenspan. If you are bored down there at the Fed, 
if a rosy economic outlook makes you blue, get out of town, take a 
vacation, do anything, but just do not raise those interest rates.
  There seems to be general agreement that we can expect another 
increase in interest rates at the Fed's August 16th meeting. This fact 
is seen as a done deal, in spite of economic indications that it is not 
necessary. The August 15 edition of Business Week notes that even the 
Fed's own August 3 survey of regional economies points to a slowing in 
the economy, but acknowledges that ``it is unlikely to prevent another 
widely expected hike in short rates by the Federal Reserve in mid-
August.'' Why not, Mr. President? Does Mr. Greenspan like bad news so 
much that he wants to create more?
  The Commerce Department estimates that the first quarter growth rate 
was 3.3 percent and the second merely 3.7 percent--substantially below 
the 4\1/2\ percent to 5 percent that Business Week asserts was widely 
anticipated. But clearly this isn't gloomy enough for Mr. Greenspan. 
Following Mr. Greenspan's logic is a little like Alice in Wonderland--
it gets curiouser and curiouser.
  Do America a favor, Mr. Greenspan, defy conventional wisdom, do not 
raise interest rates. Economic growth is good. Americans working is 
good. Low interest rates are good.
  Alan Greenspan reminds me a little of Shakespeare's Hamlet who said 
``Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so.'' Hamlet was 
a tragedy, do not turn the American economy into a tragedy as well, Mr. 
Greenspan.

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