Saturday, October 29, 2005

Greenspan's Legacy

As 'the Maestro' Alan Greenspan's tenure winds into its last leg and the excitement shifts to Bernanke, a introspection of Greenspan's achievements is in order. Very few news agencies have done so in a detailed and unbiased way. Most refer to Greenspan in mythical terms, the man who saved the US economy multiple times, the man who could do no wrong. So I thought a counterview was appropriate, and for that Forbes magazine is the place to be. To be fair to Alan, Forbes represents a group of supply-sides whose definition of a good Fed is no Fed.

James Grant's column is fairly critical of Greenspan's performance and record. Grant is a dollar-bear and gold-bull, in part because he thinks rising debts and poor fiscal policies do not bode well for any of the world's currencies (he does like Korean and South African currencies, but has in the past suggested dividend stocks in Korea instead - but this is not an investing post!)

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