Have a thorny political problem but don’t have the testicular fortitude to tackle it directly? Have an éminence grise call for a blue-ribbon bipartisan commission!
That’s what Alan Greenspan has done on Capitol Hill this morning, calling for a panel to tackle the US deficit. Greenspan rose to chair the Federal Reserve Board after chairing a blue-ribbon panel in the early 1980s that helped shore-up an already sagging US social security system.
Say what you want about Greenspan being a monetary dove. He was always a deficit hawk and deserves credit for helping steer Bill Clinton toward balanced budgets in the late 1990s (in exchange for loose monetary policy…oops!)
Let’s hope Obama takes up Greenspan’s cause…
