Alan Greenspan, Egalitarian?

Sam Pizzigati
November 07, 2005

Sam Pizzigati is a journalist and the author of Greed and Good: Understanding and Overcoming the Inequality that Limits Our Lives, edits Too Much, an online weekly on excessive income and wealth. He can be reached at editor@toomuchonline.org.

The 79-year-old Alan Greenspan, arguably the world economy's single most powerful figure, will finally ride off into the sunset Jan. 31, after 18 years as the chair of the Federal Reserve Board.

But don't expect the media spotlight to stop shining on him—not just yet. We will no doubt witness, over the next three months, a steady stream of over-the-top tributes lauding Greenspan for his long tenure at the nation's economic helm.

Those tributes started gushing two weeks ago, right after President Bush nominated economist Ben Bernanke as Greenspan's successor. Experts, a Bloomberg News analysis quickly noted, believe Greenspan “ran the Fed as well as it could be run.”