On Wed, 5 Apr 2000, Enrique Diaz-Alvarez wrote:
> He may be a mediocrity, but the head of the Fed cannot possibly be
> *that* stupid, can he? Anybody with inside information out there?
I heard one commentary that might have been parody, but might have been straight, arguing that Greenspan was *trying* to appear clueless. The commentator argued that nobody listened to him when he tried to talk down the market because they all believed he was omniscient and would never let things collapse (aka "The Greenspan Put.") So now he was being vague and mixing up concepts (like productivity leads to inflation) on purpose in order to stir doubts that he knew what he was doing.
I don't know whther this analysis was born of hero worship or deep sarcasm.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com