Inflation, like the Iranian hostage crisis and the oil shocks of the late 1970s, told Americans they had become playthings of forces their government could not master, and that their government could not protect the currency as a stable store of value. Now Bill Clinton has renominated Greenspan, who was nominated to his first term by President Reagan. Clinton began his first term exasperated by the need to keep the bond markets mollified by restraining public borrowing and dampening fears of inflation. We're Eisenhower Republicans here, and we are fighting the Reagan Republicans. We stand for lower deficits and free trade and the bond market.
Liberals speak of growth.
Conservatives, their vocabulary pre-empted, speak as liberals used to, in moral rather than economic language. Clinton's reverence for a central banker like Greenspan is historically anomalous, even if the Fed was created by a Democratic President, Woodrow Wilson. Greenspan, then in the private sector, campaigned with Reagan 20 years ago, when conventional economic wisdom was pessimistic. The resulting wealth creation is radiating large, if unpredictable, consequences. That may trigger irrational exuberance, and then a scowl from the fourth branch.