THE MONETARY MINUET

CLINTON NEEDS GROWTH IN AN ELECTION YEAR. THE FED TICKLES INTEREST RATES TO PROVIDE IT. IS THAT ENOUGH?

BILL CLINTON IS IN A TICKLISH SPOT. He needs the Federal Reserve Board to help ward off the threat of a recession that could gravely wound or even kill his re-election bid. But he dare not put any overt pressure on the fiercely independent Fed, or on its Republican-appointed chairman, Alan Greenspan. And though the President has been pointedly silent about whether he will reappoint Greenspan when his term expires March 1, few people in Washington think he would risk dumping him. There would be too much hell to pay in Congress, on Wall Street and in the business community, where...

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