I find Greenspan and his book tour to be entertaining, but not encouraging. To be honest, I really don’t care what he says one way or the other about the economy or his successor or what Ben should do or not do. There is so very little difference between what Ben has done and what Greenspan used to do that I don’t know why it matters. On the other hand, I wonder what Paul Volcker has to say about all this mess. At least he has a relevant perspective on not being a tool during tough challenges for monetary policy. I’d love to hear him comment about the need to protect the dollar, fight inflation, deal with credit crises, etc. Here is a Bloomberg piece from 2 years ago. Reading that you might think Paul knew what challenges Ben would face, but I’d much rather hear what he has to say now.