In aspeech on 'The Role of the Federal Reserve in the Economy' given on 18 November, Robert Parry of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said it looks as if after a couple of years of sluggish performance the US economy may have finally found its legs. This was expected because there are some very positive fundamentals at work, he said. These include short-term interest rates at their lowest levels in more than forty years, phenomenal productivity performance and the stimulus in the