Bush to Meet With Greenspan Today

President Bush will meet with Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan today and also with his team of economic advisors, a White House spokesman said.

The president and Greenspan meet periodically to discuss the state of the economy. Today’s meeting is the first reported since they had lunch together Dec. 3.

Greenspan will make his first speeches of the year this week, including one Friday on the economy to a San Francisco public policy group.

He also will discuss financial literacy at an economic summit in Oakland on Thursday.

The economy fell into recession in March and gross domestic product contracted at a 1.3% annual rate in the third quarter.

GDP probably shrank again at a 1.4% pace in the final three months of last year, according to a Bloomberg News survey.

The Fed has lowered the benchmark overnight bank lending rate 11 times since the beginning of 2001 to a 40-year low of 1.75% to give the economy a boost.

Greenspan last spoke at length on the U.S. economy Oct. 19 when he told the National Italian American Foundation that the country faced an “uneven” recovery from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The Fed’s policy-setting Open Market Committee next convenes to discuss interest rates Jan. 29 and 30. Investors are betting that the Fed has halted its series of reductions and that rates may start to rise by midyear.