ALAN GREENSPAN: TOO EXUBERANT FOR SOME LIBERALS

Alan Greenspan is guilty of irrational exuberance, at least in the minds of the archliberal Americans for Democratic Action.

Ticked off by the Federal Reserve chairman's upbeat assessment of the U.S. economy during recent congressional testimony, ADA National President Jim Jontz dispatched a letter to Greenspan arguing that millions of hard-working Americans have suffered for the benefit of the few.

"While we, as a nation, deserve to be proud of our 'booming' economy, we still must feel a great sense of shame that that economic growth has bypassed a significant number of Americans who deserve to reap its rewards," wrote Jontz, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana. "We, and you, must pause long enough in our frenzy of self-congratulations to remind ourselves that we, as a society, have a deep and abiding obligation to all who reside here, not just the privileged few."

Jontz was responding to Greenspan's Capitol Hill testimony about the continuing strength of the U.S. economy, despite the downturn in Asia. The Fed chairman declared that "the recent [U.S.] economic performance, with its combination of strong growth and low inflation, is as impressive as any I have witnessed in my near half-century of daily observation of the American economy."

Some liberals were outraged by Greenspan's upbeat view. They consider the current economic statistics a chimera -- a "beautiful Potemkin village" in Jontz's words -- that is likely to vanish. In his letter to Greenspan, dated July 24, Jontz argued that median family income and hourly wages had dipped during the booming Nineties and that the income gap between rich and poor had "worsened steadily."

ADA, formed in 1947 to speak for anti-Communist leftists, is a frequent critic of Wall Street greed. In the past, Greenspan has used the congressional hearing room to send his own sort of message to Wall Street, as he did with his comments cautioning investors to beware of "irrational exuberance." But in this case, ADA thinks that both the Fed boss and Wall Street are irrationally exuberant.

By Richard S. Dunham