Greenspan seems to be solid man at Fed, US economy helm

WASHINGTON, Jan 5: Though President Bill Clinton frequently and publicly takes credit for the longest US expansion on record, the firm hand at the helm of the economic ship for over a decade belongs to Alan Greenspan, reports AFP.

Clinton's reappointment Tuesday of the affable 73-year-old New York native for a fourth four-year term as chairman of the US Federal Reserve was intended to send out a signal to US and world markets.

"His wise and steady leadership has inspired confidence not only here in America, but all around the world," said Clinton.

Unusual in Washington, Greenspan counts both Demo-crats and Republicans among admirers of his fiscal rectitude while his reputation on Wall Street remains godlike after he dug the country out from under a potential crash of global markets in 1987, the year he took over at the Fed.

His reappointment brought approving comments from both sides of Congress and took no one by surprise on Wall Street.

"Greenspan is the architect of the great expansion, the longest in US history" said Larry Wachtel, economist at Prudential Securities. "Clinton had no other choice."

Stephen Thurman, deputy chief economist at the US Chamber of Commerce, said that Clinton was also thinking politically. The appointment comes the year in which Vice President Al Gore is campaigning to replace Clinton in the November polls.

"Politically, a strong performance of the financial markets and the economy will be good for Al Gore in November," he said.

"To reappoint Greenspan now is also useful for Gore because it may take this off the political table."

Greenspan was born in New York in 1926, the son of a stock broker. He quickly gave up a career as a jazz clarinet player to study finance at New York University, then start a financial consultant business with a partner.

He entered public life in 1968, when he became the economic advisor to former president Richard Nixon's election campaign.

He was appointed to the Federal Reserve for a first term by Ronald Reagan and reappointed to subsequent terms by George Bush and Clinton.

Though Greenspan makes significantly less money than he could in the private sector, he has considerable power and admits to enjoying "every minute" of using it.

His power derives chiefly from his position as chairman of the Federal Reserve's policymaking Open Market Committee.

This committee raises and lowers interest rates, thus speeding up or slowing the economy, raising or lowering inflation, and creating or costing people their jobs.

The moderate Republican, a partisan of "laissez-faire" economic policies, is skilled in the arts of Washington's corridors of power and likes being in the spotlight, friends have said.

Three years ago he married television news reporter Andrea Mitchell, 52, with whom he had been involved for 12 years.

His career highlights include facing down the October 1987 Black Monday crash when US stocks fell 22 per cent.