The Fed Takes a Holiday

WASHINGTON: The U.S. economy is back on its own for a while. After a frenzied (for Alan Greenspan, anyway) string of three straight interest-rate cuts, the Federal Reserve took an expected pass on Tuesday, courtesy of the American consumer. Emboldened by their ever-fattening stock portfolios, consumers have not only carried their economy through a tenuous autumn, they have actually set off some alarms in the Fed's head about an old foe: inflation.

But let's not worry about that until the Fed's next FOMC board meeting in January. For now, Greenspan rates a gushy Christmas card for helping the rest of the world get through an economic crisis that, so far, Americans have only read about. Around the world, U.S. rate cuts provided the world with cheaper dollars to borrow, keeping domestic currencies afloat all over Asia. As we head into the holidays, the blaze is out, at least for now. And Greenspan the fireman is back on thermostat duty.