From May 2006 to May 2008, the Federal Reserve will...

[hvn_nbr_2]

overall lower the interest rates that it controls.

This will happen regardless of economic conditions: regardless of boom or bust; regardless of inflation, deflation, or stability; regardless of high or low unemployment; regardless of government deficits or surpluses; regardless of world trade or geopolitical conditions. There is only one thing that could change this: if a Democrat somehow becomes president before May 2008, such as the "Pelosi for President 2007" scenario.

Here is a summary of the reasoning behind this claim, taken from here (my emphasis added in bold):
http://home.comcast.net/~david_brubaker/FedIntRateChart.v3.htm

During every four-year presidential term, there is a period of 24 months when the Federal Reserve Board's actions on interest rates will have the most impact on the state of the economy during the next presidential election.

During the periods when their actions will most affect the state of the economy during the next presidential election season, the Fed's actions are diametrically opposite depending on the party currently in the White House; but at other times their interest rate actions are similar regardless of the party currently in power.

During that sensitive period of time in every presidential term since 1960, the Fed has acted to stimulate the economy if the incumbent is a Republican and to slow the economy if the incumbent is a Democrat. Through recession and boom, inflation and stability, deficits and surpluses, there is not a single exception to that partisan pattern.

My conclusions: The Federal Reserve acts as a de facto agent of the Republican presidential campaign committee. All of Alan Greenspan's obscure statistics that no one else ever heard of are just a smoke screen to camouflage the Fed's blatantly partisan activity. The Fed seems to have deliberately induced a recession specifically to benefit the Republican presidential candidate in the 2000 election.

The analysis on that site stops in the middle of Chimpie's first term, but if it continued, the same conclusion would apply to that term too.

[cliss]

1. Those creeps....

they deliberately created a recession to benefit the repubs in 2000? Well, it all comes back to the tapeworm theory.

You squeeze your host a little too hard, and......

[gristy]

2. Here's an idea - Maybe they do this because

during that sensitive period of time in every presidential term since 1960, the economy has sucked if the incumbent is a Republican and the economy has been doing great if the incumbent is a Democrat!