The Gentle Persuader

The long shadow of Alan Greenspan

Jeff Taylor | October 27, 2005

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Bernanke, however, will no doubt have his toughest job when the data tell him it is time to ease. The Fed should be moving to a neutral stance on rates just as Greenspan leaves, which buys Bernanke time. But sooner or later the business cycle pendulum will swing back; it will be time to ease. If Bernanke conveys that shift in a low monotone, liberally spiked with qualifiers and modifiers, "likely," "unlikely," and "more or less," then he will have learned the lessons of Greenspan very well.

More or less.

Jeff A. Taylor writes the weekly Reason Express.