Word: feds
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...marine, Bickle has found himself stricken with insomnia, and, in the movie's opening scene, decides to undertake driving the moonlight shift on a taxi cab simply as a way of filling up the time. Increasingly fed up with the sordid people he encounters in his midnight runs--prostitutes, pimps, pushers and various basket cases--he begins a strict physical and mental regimen in pursuit of some goal at which we can only guess. After an innocent attempt to woo a senator's aide (Cybill Shepherd) and to rescue a teenage prostitute (Jodie Foster) from the streets, Travis resorts...
...point each. That prompted major banks to lower the prime lending rates granted to their best customers by the same amount, to 8 1/4%. The discreet adjustment, his third since July, also drew an ever so discreet statement from the Administration praising the cut while stressing respect for the Fed's independence...
...upshot: a business expansion that is at some risk of dying of old age (it began in March 1991) needs more stimulus than the Fed is giving it. Or so say many economists. Last week's tweak is "too little, too late," argues Allan Meltzer, professor of political economy at Carnegie-Mellon University. Says Irwin Kellner, chief economist of Chemical Bank: "A quarter point will help a wee bit, but it's going to take more than that to get this economy going." One signpost: house sales lately have been flat, despite a drop in mortgage rates...
...most economists still expect continued growth this year--and they do--that is partly because they think the Fed will cut interest rates some more. They further expect business spending for new plant and equipment and strong export sales to take up slack from consumers. Also, says economist Bernard Weinstein of the University of North Texas, "you don't have a recession in an election year...
...President does have a chance to nudge the Fed a bit more, legitimately. To fill the just-vacated post of vice chairman, the Administration has been floating the name of Felix Rohatyn, a top investment- banking dealmaker at Lazard Freres. Rohatyn, a Democrat best known as the head of the municipal corporation that saved New York City from bankruptcy in the 1970s, has both the assertive personality and the towering reputation on Wall Street to voice progrowth arguments forcefully inside the board. In any case, to keep the economy humming, the budget-bound President has only one place to look...