Not so stupid
I AM encouraged to think that nothing was the right thing to do. It often is, even though ministers and mandarins are unlike- ly to include it in their job descriptions. There have been recent periods in British economic history when a total eclipse of the Treasury would have done us all a power of good. For President Clinton, the effect is ironic. He fought his election cam- paign on 'the economy — stupid'. Now he finds the weather being made by the central banker who was there all the time. Alan Greenspan was put into the Federal Reserve by Ronald Reagan: not so stupid. He has now hoisted interest rates for the fifth time this year, having left the markets to bite their nails for weeks — would it be an itsy-bitsy 1/4 per cent this time round, or a great big 1/2 per cent? A nice round 1/2 per cent it was, and everyone felt better
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