Fun_People Archive
19 Mar
The Cult of Greenspan

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 98 20:19:48 -0800
To: Fun_People
Precedence: bulk
Subject: The Cult of Greenspan

Forwarded-by: Michael Travers <mt@watson.ibm.com>

This is too weird:

PRAISED BE GREENSPAN
By Jonathan Chait and Stephen Glass
The strange rituals of Federal Reserve fanatics.

   http://magazines.enews.com/magazines/tnr/current/chait033098.html

[excerpt]

...another bond-trading outfit has turned an empty office into a
Greenspan shrine. Dozens of news photographs of Greenspan adorn the walls;
glass casing encloses two Bic pens Greenspan supposedly used in 1993.
Quotations from more than 30 of his speeches are posted under a sign that
reads "Greenspan's Teachings." The centerpiece is a red leather chair that
sits in the middle of the room, surrounded by blue velvet ropes. A placard
perched on the armrest says Greenspan sat in the chair in 1948--at the time,
he was still in college. "Some nights when we've lost money," trader Brent
Donalds confides, "I come in here and sit in the chair and think. It gives
me inspiration."

Many trading houses use a software program which translates any Greenspan
sentence into a predicted market reaction, using a database of all his
public remarks. The program bills itself as the "Talmud of the Federal
Reserve-- interpreting his every word!"

© 1998 Peter Langston