[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14718]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



    FEDERAL RESERVE DECIDING HOW HIGH, HOW MUCH, HOW OFTEN TO RAISE 
                             INTEREST RATES

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, at this very moment, the Federal Reserve is 
ensconced in their marble palace downtown meeting in secret, eating a 
catered breakfast off of fine china, all paid for by the taxpayer.
  They are deciding how high, how much, how often to raise interest 
rates to combat inflation that does not exist.
  They are about to raise the rates on credit cards for tens of 
millions of Americans, auto loans for tens of millions of Americans, 
mortgages for tens of millions of Americans?
  Why? Because they said they are worried about the stock bubble on 
Wall Street.

                              {time}  1015

  But instead of using their awesome power to go directly at the 
speculators and the rampant speculation on Wall Street, they are going 
to take a whack at Main Street in the hope that the pain and the 
message exacted on average consumers filters up to the speculators on 
Wall Street. This is a bizarre new twist in economics.
  It is time to pull back the curtain of secrecy and reveal the 
profundity of the Federal Reserve working in the interests of the 
privileged few at the expense of the majority in this country.

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