>People do hype the Fed's role precisely because
>it can advance a partisan agenda - Clinton didn't
>really do anything or Clinton lied about his role, etc.
>But it also feeds those who trumpet the virtues of the
>market or the effectiveness of monetary over fiscal policy, etc.
>I wonder how the salience of Greenspan's role will play
>out in the poltical arena. Has monetarism won? What
>role can be pitched for fiscal policy if the bankers
>are held to have delivered the goods?
My claim isn't that AG did anything positive to create the "boom" - it was that he did nothing, and didn't tighten, when the FOMC and Wall Street hawks were urging him to. If I were Jeff Greenfield, I'd say something about that being the dog that didn't bark.
Doug