For too many years, Alan Greenspan has been treated like an oracular deity and all-purpose wisdom vending machine, as enigmatic a fortune cookie and yet irreproachable--irreplacable. No mere mortal can hope to hold the wisdom he brings from on high. The fawning and flowing tribute he receives whenever he testifies before Congress is a disgrace to democracy. (I exempt Senator Sarbanes and Congressman Ron Paul from this chorus of suckups.)
Greenspan fostered the excesses of the Nasdaq bubble, fretted that the surplus accumulated under Clinton was too large (gee, there's a problem that won't be bothering us again anytime soon), supported the Bush tax cuts, and encouraged Americans to consume and load on debt--making this the first time the country has come out of a recession with a lower personal savings rate than it had than it went in. Some call him Easy Al, so eager has he been to slash interest rates and flood the markets with cheap money and champion mortgage refinancing.
I predict that if Kerry is elected, we're going to see a different Greenspan than the one who's been running the taps full blast under Bush. A Greenspan more fretful and foreboding about the future. One who insists we tighten our belts and get our house in order. The prudent Greenspan we seldom see when a Republican is president.
It's time for Greenspan to go. It's past time. He will be nothing but a liability to Kerry, and it's wrong for a single person to have as much unaccountable power as Greenspan has had for too long. Once Kerry is in the Oval Office, he should have a nice meeting with the Fed chairman and suggest that, given his age and distinguished service to the nation, it would be an opportune moment to consider spending more quality time with Andrea and have longer baths in the morning.
The markets would do their headless-chicken dance, to be sure. But then Kerry could float the name of Greenspan's proposed successor, Robert Rubin sounds nice, and calm would be restored in the financial casinos.
