AUG 27th, The day Mars sneared at Earth and Dr. O was born

the "O"dometer just moved another year on me. In celebration and reflection, I wanted to post this link on Chairman Greenspans Tenure of 18 years....

The theme of this year's symposium is an examination of the 18-year tenure of legendary central banker US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who plans to step down in January 2006.

The Greenspan Era: Lessons for the Future -- A Symposium Sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. (Jackson Hole, Wyoming, August 25-27, 2005).

``I'd hate to be the next guy in line'' for the chairmanship, said Henley Smith, chief investment officer at Gabelli Funds LLC in Rye, New York. ``You're going to get some uncertainty and volatility should increase as his day gets closer,'' he said of Greenspan's retirement.

Volatility rises when investors have differing opinions on fundamentals affecting interest rates. Implied volatility, as measured by the MOVE index, is the relative rate at which the market expects interest rates to move up and down. Options are the right to buy or sell assets at a set date and price.

Under Greenspan, the MOVE index has ranged from 57.89 in the weeks before the 1998 Russia debt default and failure of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management, to a high of 186 in the weeks following those events. The index was mostly over 100, averaging 103.58 from 1988 to 2002.