NEW YORK, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Following are excerpts from the question-and-answer session after the second leg of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's semiannual Humphrey-Hawkins testimony before the House Banking Committee on Wednesday:
REP. WATERS, D-Calif: (Asks about extending trade and investment opportunities to Africa and Cuba.)
GREENSPAN: "The ... issue of Cuba goes back to 1959-1960 ... the politics ... the history is replete with more things than any of us could write about... It's one of the rare parts of the world where we have very little expertise ... I don't think there are great disputes about (the importance of) opening markets ... democratic elections ... That would be helpful, engage a goodly part of American business establishment ... If political issues were resolved there is very little doubt ... there's a great deal of potential investment ... if it were to become a free economy."
REP. WATERS: "As opposed to China?"
GREENSPAN: "... That question is fundamentally political..."
REP. WATERS: "And Africa?"
GREENSPAN: "...Globalization ... benefits everyone ... Most of us should be endeavoring to find a way to increase trade..."
REP. WATERS: (Asks about proposals to boost the minimum wage.)
GREENSPAN: "...Evidence we have suggests there are inflationary impacts from increasing the minimum wage ..."
18:22 02-24-99
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