BUSINESS MEMO: FEDERAL RESERVE TO MEET

NEW YORK -- Confident that holding interest rates steady this year was the right move, the Federal Reserve will almost certainly keep the rates unchanged when it convenes Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal said last week.

The newspaper quoted from conversations with federal officials, who note that inflation has been kept in check despite a relatively low unemployment rate.

Nobel Laureate economist Paul Samuelson said he thought the Fed was making a mistake by keeping interest rates low. He warned in a recent interview that the Fed could be headed toward "an expensive Pyrrhic victory" if wages pick up soon and fuel inflation again.