Budapest bits

[GEORGE THOMPSON]

A recent message from Barry Popik included the following item:

TAKE AWAY THE PUNCH BOWL

     I don't recall seeing this phrase recorded.
     From the NEW YORK OBSERVER, 25 September 2000, pg. 30, col. 5:

     "Head in the sand before a crisis, intervention after the fact," the Fed
squandered an opportunity to dscipline financial markets: what
central bankers of a previous generation called "taking away the
punch bowl".

The obituary of William McChesney Martin, a former director of the
Federal Reserve, in the New York Times of July 29, 1998 (p. A16)
included the following sentence:

Mr.  Martin, a plain-spoken Democrat from Missouri, detested
inflation. He once said that the role of the Federal Reserve was ''to
take away the punch bowl just when the party gets going.''

This remark has been quoted more recently by Floyd Norris, in his New
York Times column of October 22, 1999 (p. c1).  Perhaps worthy of
Fred's dictionary of quotations?

GAT