
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 9, 1990                   TAG: 9003091912
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

GREENSPAN OUT AT TERM'S END, SOURCES SAY

President Bush is so upset over Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan's refusal to push interest rates down further that he is unlikely to reappoint him as Fed chairman when his term expires in August 1991, sources said Thursday.

Although White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater denied it, a longtime Bush adviser said the president was "mad as hell" about Greenspan's position. The source implied that Bush would seek a new Fed chief when Greenspan's current term is over.

"I can't believe he will reappoint him and I don't know a soul in the White House who thinks he will," said the adviser.

Fitzwater said the matter of Greenspan's reappointment had not been discussed in the White House.

The sources, who asked not to be identified, said that while Greenspan's future may not have been discussed in any formal way, the prevailing White House sentiment made his reappointment improbable unless Fed policy in the next 17 months moves in the direction the White House prefers.

Over the past few months, administration officials have criticized the Fed on several occasions for keeping interest rates too high. But this is the first time anyone close to Bush has suggested that the president is so agitated over the issue that Greenspan may lose the job.

When told that sources had said that Bush was so upset with Greenspan that he would probably not reappoint him as chairman, Fitzwater said: "I don't think he's nearly that upset. Let me check and call you back in five minutes."

Fitzwater called back and said White House chief of staff John H. Sununu and Michael J. Boskin, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, had told him "the president has the highest respect for Greenspan and likes him and has worked with him closely over the years and has included him in meetings. And it's just not the case there's any anger. Reappointment hasn't been discussed and he's not up for a year and a half."

by CNB