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Greenspan to quit as Fed Reserve chairman
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-31 11:28

Alan Greenspan, widely viewed as the U.S. economy's maestro, is preparing to turn over his conductor's baton to successor, Ben Bernanke.

Greenspan, 79 and the second-longest serving chairman of the Federal Reserve, will preside over his last interest-rate meeting Tuesday as he retires after 18 1/2 years as head of the U.S. central bank.

Waiting in the wings to take the baton is Bernanke, 52, chosen by President George W. Bush to run the Fed.

Bernanke is a respected economist who spent 17 years teaching at Princeton University before becoming a governor at the Federal Reserve and then chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers.

Alan Greenspan is seen in central London December 2, 2005.
Alan Greenspan is seen in central London December 2, 2005.[Reuters/file]
The Senate is expected to approve Bernanke's nomination Tuesday. His swearing in as the 14th chairman of the Federal Reserve, created by Congress in 1913, probably will come Wednesday.

Greenspan's last major piece of business Tuesday will be guiding his colleagues to a decision on interest rates. Economists predict the Fed will boost interest rates by one-quarter percentage point to 4.50 percent to thwart inflation.

If the ritual of past meetings holds, Greenspan will sink into his chairman's chair _ the top of which has a little brass plaque that carries his name. He and his colleagues will discuss interest rate policy gathered around a 27-foot (8-meter)-long mahogany table that sits beneath a 1,000-pound (450-kilogram), brass-and-glass chandelier festooned with dignified eagles.

Greenspan's agile handling of the economy has earned him monikers, including the maestro, the greatest central banker who ever lived and the second-most important person in Washington.
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