NCBA Pushes for Interest Rate Reduction

National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) President Wythe Willey Nov. 1 sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan urging a reduction in interest rates.

The NCBA letter calls for "an additional one-quarter, or even one-half, percentage point reduction in interest rates," and cites the timing of next week's meeting of the Federal Open-Market Committee as a determining factor. 

"In light of recent record monthly trade deficits, higher than expected unemployment and disappointing GDP growth figures, we are compelled to continue to make the case that the time for interest rate reduction is now," says Willey.  "Interest rate reduction now will provide shorter-term interim stimulus and can be reversed as the economic growth rate begins to increase."

NCBA sent an initial request to Greenspan on September 17, urging a quarter-point interest rate reduction.  "As stated in our last letter, the U.S. economy remains mired in a slow recovery at best, and cattle producers are struggling through drought in much of the central plains and the West," the letter states.  "Our producers operate in a very capital intensive sector of the U.S. economy, and a reduction in interest rates will make their cost of doing business easier to bear."