Volcker's eventual success against inflation was crucial to the 49-state reelection victory of the man who defeated Carter in 1980. 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 preempted, speak as liberals used to, in moral rather than economic language. Greenspan 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.