Greenspan Vs. The Dow  Once Again, The Chairman Could Tip The
President  March 06, 2000|By John McCarron.  Alan Greenspan has
declared war on your IRA.  The chairman of the Federal Reserve
is also out to zap your 401(k) retirement plan.  And your stock
options, if you're one of a growing number of white-collar
technicians whose pay is tied to the price of your company's
common stock.  Greenspan, you see, has been mightily annoyed by
the bull market in stocks. That's because, unlike the chairman's
admirers in the White House and in Congress, the stock market
has a mind of its own.  It has had the nerve to ignore the
chairman. And the chairman does not like to be ignored.
Greenspan warned investors back in December of '96 that he was
losing patience. He declared then, back when the Dow Jones
Industrial Average was around 6400, that we investors were
guilty of "irrational exuberance," that we had bid the price of
equities too high.  But we kept pouring our retirement savings
into stock mutual funds, where total