Unemployment stands at 4.9 percent after dropping to a four-decade low of 4 percent in 2000. Greenspan was able to convince skeptical Fed colleagues that rising productivity would allow jobless rates to fall without triggering inflation.
Private analysts believe Greenspan is being modest.
"Greenspan has had the most successful tenure in Fed history. He kept inflation under very tight control while avoiding any major recessions," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York.
Of course, there were some controversies.
Many analysts cite Greenspan's decision to support the current president's tax cuts in 2001. They helped push the federal budget from trillion-dollar surpluses to record deficits.
Greenspan says he would recommend tax cuts again, given projections -- which failed to happen -- of budget surpluses that would total US$5.6 trillion over a decade.
He is also faulted for failing to rein in the high-flying stock market in time. He did famously wonder in 1996 whether investors could be in the grip of "irrational exuberance." But prices kept climbing. When the bubble burst, Greenspan moved to contain the damage by lowering interest rates.
"If Greenspan had been stronger in his views, then the bubble would not have been as large and the subsequent correction not as severe," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.
Greenspan's response: To pop the bubble earlier, the Fed would have had to raise interest rates so high that the country would have been pushed into a severe recession. As his influence grew, Greenspan was called upon to advance opinions on matters beyond the realm of monetary policy. Not only did he lend support to Bush's tax cuts, but eight years earlier he blessed former US president Bill Clinton's tax increases to deal with troubling budget deficits.
This opened him to attacks from both Republicans and Democrats.
By comparison, Ben Bernanke, the former Princeton economics professor selected to succeed Greenspan, says he plans to limit his public advice to areas directly under the Fed's control.
Bernanke has also pledged to follow the Greenspan play book when it comes to running the economy.
That may turn out to be Greenspan's most lasting legacy.
RSS