No irrational exuberance as Greenspan departs
But the flipside of the strong growth, which has sucked in imports and capital from around the world, is a giant current account deficit now heading for an unprecedented £800bn, or 6.5% of gross domestic product. Mr Greenspan stands accused of allowing the dotcom bubble to inflate so far in the late 1990s that it burst spectacularly, at which point he slashed interest rates and allow another bubble - in housing - to inflate.