Market Mob Closing In on Greenspan -- Cut Now!

By the time Alan Greenspan sits down to speak to a House committee tomorrow, it's not silly to think there could be a mob of people outside the Federal Reserve's building with rakes, torches and other assorted farm equipment, sort of like in the 1980s, when the Fed declared war on inflation.

Or that scene in Frankenstein when, apparently, the whole town had nothing more to do but show up at that castle armed with torches. (Come to think of it, that'd be pretty cool.)

This time, though, they'd be stock traders, bellowing for Greenspan (when he addresses the House Finance Committee tomorrow morning) to administer another rate cut as an elixir for the market's recent travails.

The calls for another cut in the fed funds rate from the market, currently at 5.5%, have grown louder by the day. They were heightened by the unusual occurrence of the Fed's spokesperson yesterday saying Greenspan will be revising his testimony to the Senate, which he gave two weeks ago. Typically, this speech is little more than a standard reiteration of what the Fed boss has told the Senate in his appearance before that body. ...