Word: humphrey
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Like any good driver, Treasury Secretary Humphrey knows that there is a time to put on the brakes and a time to step on the gas. Having put the brakes on credit expansion by raising interest rates, Humphrey last week decided the time had come to step on the gas. The supply of credit had become too tight for the needs of a still expanding economy and a Government still in the red. One warning signal: construction, which usually rises seasonally in April and May, dropped in May for the first time in eleven years...
...Humphrey, the architect of the Administration's tighter-money policy, agreed with the Federal Reserve Board on what to do. For the first time since 1949, the FRB lowered its reserve requirements for member banks, enough to free $1.1 billion. Since every such freed dollar liberated about $5 in additional credit, the move made available about $5.5 billion for loans...
...biggest significance was the demonstration that neither Humphrey nor the FRB plans to follow any undeviating course in money policy. If need be, they are as ready to loosen credit to prevent a recession as they are to tighten it to prevent inflation...
...move was a temporary reversal of the hard-money policy in that it keeps interest rates from going any higher. Humphrey had a compelling reason to seek that. Right after he floated $1 billion worth of 3¼% bonds in April-the highest long-term rate in 20 years-all interest rates went up until the Treasury found itself paying far stiffer rates for short-term borrowings. Since then, a drop in tax receipts has proved that Harry Truman's budget overestimated the Government's income this year by $2.2 billion. Humphrey will have to raise $6 billion...
...money market as tight as his credit-pinching had created. Humphrey might have had to boost interest rates even more to raise such huge amounts. The credit expansion would not only create almost the identical amount banks may need to finance new-money bond issues; the prospect also stiffened the prices of both Government and corporate bonds. The Government's 2½% bonds rose a full point, and Humphrey's new 3¼% bonds rose to par for the first time in six weeks...