Maestro of the Treasury?

.washingtonpost.com ^ | Wednesday, December 1, 2004 | George F. Will

[crushelits]

Maestro of the Treasury?

The White House used the front page of Monday's Washington Post to cashier a Cabinet member.
A story headlined "Bush to Change Economic Team" said: "One senior administration official said Treasury Secretary John W. Snow can stay as long as he wants, provided it is not very long." Obviously the office will need filling before "very long."

The president should fill it with Alan Greenspan. He has headed the Federal Reserve system under four presidents -- since August 1987. Now he is needed elsewhere.
Historian Allan Nevins, Grover Cleveland's biographer, said that Cleveland's problems "never came as spies but as battalions." President Bush may soon know that feeling, partly because global economic winds will blow as they will, but mostly because of his ambitious agenda, particularly Social Security reform.

[Bluegrass Conservative]

I'm having a hard time understanding why people want Greenspan to move out of his current position. If it is such a vital position and he does it better than nearly anyone that has ever held it, shouldn't we keep him there?

Is it not possible to find another gifted Secretary of the Treasury? What exactly are the criteria that make a good candidate for this office?

[groanup]

Couldn't read the whole article because of registration. I really don't know how anyone can fault Alan Greenspan, overall, for his performance. The Fed has always over done it. Too much tightening, too much loosening. Greenspan has been much better than most. Remember G. William Miller? LOL! The guy had no clue and, as one might guess, was a Carter appointee. LOL! LOL! The guy was wearing blinders.

[RWR8189]

He has to leave the Fed by January 2006.

[Bluegrass Conservative]

I didn't read the entire article because my computer moves way too slowly when it goes to links. So, if the answer to this is in there, please excuse the question. But why does he have to leave by '06? Could he not be renominated as before?