All fed up.

• Position: Comments on Alan Greenspan's monetary policy, the new repressive immigration laws, and the $3 bil annual US aid to Israel without peace - Commentary - Editorial

Imagine an elected official saying, "We need more unemployment. We need lower wages. I don't want you people to make any more money." That's essentially what Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, said when he decided to raise interest rates in March.

Problem is, Greenspan is not an elected official, yet he is in charge of our economic lives. He just decided to throw more people out of their jobs, raise mortgage payments, and hike the amount we pay on our credit cards.

Greenspan wasn't exactly blunt about his intentions. Here's what he said, word for word: "The action was taken in light of persisting strength in demand, which is progressively increasing the risk of inflationary imbalances developing in the economy that would eventually undermine the long expansion."

A wordsmith he ain't. But note the term "inflationary imbalances." What does that mean? In Greenspan's language, it means that workers' wages might be going up. Perish the thought!

In testimony before Congress on March 20, Greenspan was more blunt. He said that if unemployment dipped lower than 5.3 percent, it "would heighten the risk of additional upward pressure on wage costs, and ultimately prices." There you have it.

But wages are not going up very fast right now "Wage increases overall show very few signs of breaking out of the 3 percent to 4 percent range," The Wall Street Journal noted just one week before the rate hike. "That means there isn't widespread pressure on businesses to raise prices to offset wage costs."

Greenspan worries about the economy overheating But it's barely revving its engines, crawling along at 2.4 percent growth a year.

Even Greenspan admitted that inflation currently is "quite benign," but any inflation to him is a tumor Why? Because inflation cuts into the fixed assets of the big bond-holders, threatening to erode their principal.

Plus, allowing workers to have higher wages, and establishing a fullemployment economy, would threaten the power of corporate America. Workers might demand more of a say in how things run, instead of being cowed by the nearest unemployment line.

So the Fed raised the rates.

The fact is, the Fed likes unemployment. It likes low wages. It likes "job insecurity." Listen to Business Week: "Lately, Greenspan has been saying that job insecurity is easing. This was undoubtedly a factor" in his decision to raise rates. But, notes Business Week, "job insecurity hasn't vanished. New figures show that companies...