Tom Harkin: “we face another period of high risk for the economy to plunge into recession. Do we want Alan Greenspan, whose main…”

“we face another period of high risk for the economy to plunge into recession. Do we want Alan Greenspan, whose main focus has always been on inflation, to be in charge of Federal Reserve policy? I think the answer is clearly no. There are two vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board. As I said earlier, the President wanted to appoint Felix Rohaytn to one of those positions, making him Vice Chairman of the Board. Mr. Rohaytn is a man with an extremely distinguished career. Most notably, he is credited as the guiding hand that led New York City from the edge of default and economic ruin back to health. I remember that debate. I was in the House of Representatives at the time. I represented a very rural district from Iowa. I listened to Mr. Rohaytn at the time as he made his case for the New York City bailout, as it was called, and for the Federal Government and for the Congress to assist in that process. It was not in my best interests, representing a rural district, to vote for New York City. In fact, I took some pretty bad political hits for doing so. But I believed it was the right thing to do. Congress passed it. New York City was able to pay its bills and avoid default. It solved many of its problems with a growth policy initiated by Felix Rohaytn. He believes in growth. I find it hard to believe that anyone would want to oppose his nomination.”