Greenspan Revisionism Revised

ONCE people called him “the maestro.” John McCain said that he was such a good Fed chairman that he should stay in his position even after his death. People held him responsible for the boom of the 1990s. The cult of Alan Greenspan was sufficiently developed that when New Republic reporter Stephen Glass made up a story about brokers who literally worshipped him, the editors let it through. When Greenspan stepped down, two Princeton economists called him “the greatest central banker who ever lived.”

If I were Greenspan, I’d miss those days. His reputation has been tumbling down along with housing prices. The Left started to turn on Greenspan in 2001, when he gave President Bush’s tax cuts his qualified support. (Paul Krugman has been very tough on him, as you might expect.) The recent financial turmoil has made criticism of Greenspan a phenomenon of the center and Right as well.

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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ONCE people called him “the maestro.” John McCain said that he was such a good Fed chairman that he should stay in his position even after his death. People held him responsible for the boom of the 1990s. The cult of Alan Greenspan was sufficiently developed that when New Republic reporter Stephen Glass made up a story about brokers who literally worshipped him, the editors let it through. When Greenspan stepped down, two Princeton economists called him “the greatest central banker who ever lived.”

If I were Greenspan, I’d miss those days. His reputation has been tumbling down along with housing prices. The Left started to turn on Greenspan in 2001, when he gave President Bush’s tax cuts his qualified support. (Paul Krugman has been very tough on him, as you might expect.) The recent financial turmoil has made criticism of Greenspan a phenomenon of the center and Right as well.