Asked to name the most important person in Washington, D.C., few investors would hesitate before identifying Alan Greenspan, the architect of this nation’s longest peacetime economic expansion.
Apparently others agree; the Federal Reserve chairman is now under Secret Service protection, according to Newsweek.
The Secret Service is normally only asked to protect Presidents and Vice Presidents and their families.
But under Greenspan’s watch, the Dow Jones industrial average jumped from 2,557 to 10,799.84, a quadrupling of value.
“Investors would be very upset if suddenly Alan Greenspan didn’t come to work for some reason,” said Dan Laufenberg, economist at American Express Financial Advisors.
The Fed took this unusual action not, sources said, because Greenspan has been threatened, but because the central bank is experiencing a “personnel shortage” that left the chairman without personal protection – usually provided by the Fed’s own security guards.
The Secret Service will protect Greenspan only on an interim basis until the central bank can hire its own security force.