Greenspan Celebrating 75th Birthday on March 6 - via another thread:
By Caren Bohan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economists are starting to doubt
the staying power of the U.S. economic expansion, which
turned 10 years old this month, but not the vigor of the man
credited with steering it -- Alan Greenspan (news - web sites).
The Federal Reserve (news - web sites) chairman celebrates
his 75th birthday Tuesday, just a few days after the
anniversary of the record-breaking expansion that began in
March 1991.
By all accounts, Greenspan appears as fit as ever -- maybe even ``exuberant,'' to borrow
part of the famous expression the man himself used to describe the stock market in
1996.
That gives a worry-ridden Wall Street one less thing to fret about.
The U.S. central bank chairman was sworn in last June for a new four-year term which
ends in 2004.
``You don't hear anything to suggest that he is not going to fill out his term,'' said James
Annable, chief economist at WingspanBank. ``He is certainly on top of his job and on top
of his game. He seems more vigorous than the day he was confirmed by the Senate.''
Annable, a former Fed economist, met with Greenspan on the day of his Senate
confirmation to head the central bank in August 1987.
He noted that Greenspan's back had been bothering him at the time but that problem
seems to have cleared up.
The Fed chief is an avid tennis player, which may be helping him keep up his good
health.
He has been out and about quite a bit lately, for instance, jetting off to Palermo in Italy for
a Group of Seven meeting. He has also headed to Capitol Hill for a series of hearings --
each of them hours long -- about monetary policy and his controversial support for tax
cuts.
Meanwhile the U.S. economic expansion, which is already the longest in history, is
hobbling along, hit by a steep downturn in the stock market and rising energy costs.
Greenspan and his Fed colleagues have been trying to give the economy a shot in the
arm, slashing interest rates by a full percentage point in January. More rate cuts are
expected at the Fed's next meeting on March 20.
But on his birthday, Greenspan will join friends for a power lunch.
He will be getting together with Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, ex-FBI (news - web sites) and
CIA (news - web sites) director William Webster and former House Speaker Tom Foley.
The three men share a birthday with Greenspan and have a tradition of celebrating
together over lunch. |
