Monetary policy conundrum facing Bernanke

A Bloomberg article by Rich Miller entitled "Greenspan's Miscues Haunt Bernanke as Fed Weighs Cut" gives a fair summary of the risks to the economy whichever way the Fed acts on Tuesday. The article also refers to the need for the Fed to continue its vigilence on the inflation front, quoting Marvin Goodfriend, former senior vice president at the Richmond Fed from 1993 to 2005 and now a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh as saying "Rate cuts are not free. You pay a price.''

The article is good in the sense that it focuses on reporting a number of different points of view without taking an editorial stand on what the Fed should do.

-- Jack Krupansky