AUSTIN, Texas -- Listening to our presidential candidates is a splendid
example of the dog-that-did-not-bark-in-the-night. (The
dog-that-did-not-bark was the crucial clue to the solution of a Sherlock
Holmes mystery. Elementary, my dear Watson.)
While they snipe at one another over golden oldies -- abortion, soccer moms
and who-invented-Willie-Horton -- there is something happening out here. And
they don't know what it is, do they, Mr. Jones?
Alan Greenspan, the great pooh-bah of the economy, just raised interest
rates by a quarter of a percentage point -- the fourth increase since
June -- and clearly signaled another increase to come on March 21. This was
in an effort to tamp down the roaring stock market.
The response from the stock market? According to The Associated Press,
"Investors poured money into the shares of technology companies to the
exclusion of all other sectors." It was the speculation in high-tech stocks
that Greenspan was trying to stop, so that was a brilliant success, wasn't
it?
Bill Clinton used to quote a definition of insanity: It's doing the same
thing that doesn't work over and over again.