Free Republic

The Successor to Greenspan Has a Very Tough Act to Follow WHEN Alan Greenspan finally retires from the Federal Reserve, will he leave behind any of his DNA? Now in his 18th remarkable year as Fed chairman, the owlish and idiosyncratic Mr. Greenspan is required by law to step down in January 2006. Nominating a successor could be President Bush's biggest economic decision next year, given Mr. Greenspan's mythic reputation as the guardian of price stability and economic growth. A big uncertainty is how any successor will extend Mr. Greenspan's approach to monetary policy, which has been as much an...

Michael Howard is planning to relieve hundreds of thousands of families of the burden of inheritance tax if the Conservatives win the next election, The Daily Telegraph has learned. The party also hopes to cut stamp duty to help home-buyers and is examining how to cut indirect taxes such as fuel duty. The tax-cutting plans, described as firm "targets" rather than promises, will be unveiled in a "mission statement" at next month's party conference in Bournemouth. Mr Howard hopes the statement, which will argue the "economic and moral case" for tax cuts, will boost Tory support among middle-class voters who...

<p>REDDING - There are holes in the heart of the main library. The shelves appear flush, but so many books are missing. The works of Updike and Oates skip over the '80s. Volumes of the Best American Short Stories run from 1942 to present, but 1988-90 is a gap-tooth break in the stacks. And the 60-year O. Henry Prize Stories collection stops abruptly in 1989.</p>