Greenspan's exit from the Fed will be low-key

0 Comments | USA TODAY, January, 2006 | by Barbara Hagenbaugh

WASHINGTON -- Alan Greenspan has little more than a week to go as chairman of the Federal Reserve, and he's going out just as quietly as he came in more than 18 years ago.

No speeches are planned for investors to parse his every word. No testimony is scheduled on Capitol Hill for lawmakers to hear the chairman's opinion on pet issues. And he's not accepting interview requests from the media. He will quietly walk out the door on the evening of Jan. 31 with very little fanfare.

"It's a natural part of the transition," says Tom Gallagher, political economist for ISI Group, an economic consulting firm. "Once his successor was named, it made sense that he kind of take a step back."

Says former Fed governor Lyle Gramley, "Greenspan quite understandably doesn't...