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Honored Prophet: When James L. Doti speaks, does Washington listen?

During an early morning session Monday with the California Restaurant Assn.’s Orange County chapter, Doti predicted that Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan would move soon to keep inflation under control.

Later that same day, Greenspan warned Congress that it might be necessary to raise interest rates to prevent a spurt of inflation.

Doti, president of Chapman University in Orange and founder of Chapman’s Center for Economic Research, also told restaurant owners and operators that the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake won’t have a dramatic effect on revenue at most Orange County restaurants. Doti based that statement on the fact that the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake did relatively little damage to sales at restaurants located away from that temblor’s epicenter.