No One Left To Insult

Perhaps Paul Krugman will soon emulate Alexander, and weep, now that there are no more rivals to conquer:

Alan Greenspan is expected to retire next year. The Bush administration, because of its nature, will have a hard time finding a successor.

....If Mr. Greenspan is replaced with someone who looks like a partisan hack, capital will rush to the exits, the dollar will plunge, and interest rates will soar.

Yet President Bush, as you may have noticed, only appoints yes-men....

Of course, Mr. Greenspan himself has become a Bush yes-man.

Er, then shouldn't interest rates be soaring already?

...the presumed front-runner to succeed Mr. Greenspan was Martin Feldstein of Harvard. ....a former crusader for fiscal responsibility who became an apologist for budget deficits once Mr. Bush took office.

....Glenn Hubbard of Columbia.... everything in his policy career suggests that when the party really got going, he would say: "More punch? Yes, sir, whatever you want."

The last name one often hears is Ben Bernanke, currently a member of the Fed's Board of Governors. ....

I hope I'm wrong, but my guess is that what's intended for Mr. Bernanke is a form of hazing: he will be expected to prove his loyalty by defending the indefensible and saying things he knows aren't true.

That might seem a tolerable price to pay for the Fed chairmanship - but a year of it might well make Mr. Bernanke damaged goods from the point of view of the markets.

Oh. Wait. There's still the co-author of his forthcoming textbook....