The author of this week's Economics focus (see page 122) is well placed to comment on America's financial system. A lifelong libertarian and firm believer in free markets, for the better part of two decades Alan Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve. His legacy is still hotly debated. He oversaw years of rapid economic growth with low inflation and was once depicted by this magazine as a muscle-bound lifeguard on the beach. Yet on his departure from the Fed in 2006 The Economist also gave warning that he was leaving behind "the biggest economic imbalances in American history" after holding interestrnrates low for many years.
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