The Economy: Bill Martin's Red Flag

The nearest thing, in economic terms, to waving a flag in front of a bull is to raise the memory of that great Amer ican trauma, the stock-market crash of 1929. Last week, in the midst of record prosperity, one of the nation's senior economic policymakers waved the red flag — and thereby showed how both ered and uncertain even the healthiest of bulls can become. With some well-timed but somewhat ill-chosen words, William McChesney Martin Jr., pres tigious chairman of the Federal Reserve System, brought out the mercurial char acter of Wall Street psychology, which finds it hard...