By host Tom Ashbrook:

After eighteen and a half years and the longest economic expansion in American history, the end has finally come. Today is the last day on the job as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank for Alan Greenspan.

He’s been called the Michael Jordan, the Lance Armstrong, the Gary Kasparov of central bankers. He leaves behind an economy of strong growth, low inflation, and low unemployment.

But a cover of the Economist magazine this month shows Alan Greenspan in track suit handing off to his successor Ben Bernanke a stick of dynamite with a short and burning fuse of huge deficits and giant American indebtedness.

Hear about the Greenspan-Bernanke handoff, and the way ahead for the US economy.

Guests:

Greg Ip, Economics reporter for The Wall Street Journal.;
Jeremy Siegel, Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of “The Future for Investors: Why the Tried and True Triumph.”

James Grant, Founder and editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, a publication on the financial markets. He is also a columnist at Forbes and author of five books on finance.