WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is known for his cautious style in steering the monetary policy of the world's largest economy, and he also plays it safe when it comes to his personal investments.

Greenspan is a multimillionaire who stashes much of his money in extremely low-risk securities backed by Uncle Sam, according financial disclosure records released by the Fed.

The 73-year-old Fed chief, who draws a salary of $136,700 annually from his job, listed investments valued in the range of $2.5 million to $6.4 million on his disclosure form for 1998. All of that money was in Treasury bills, and he had no stock holdings.

He kept another several hundred thousand dollars in a variety of money-market, savings and checking accounts. Greenspan's net worth could not be determined from the records, which do not include holdings such as a house or other valuables.

Greenspan has been known to send tremors through world financial markets with utterances as brief as ``irrational exuberance.''

Moore said he chooses short-term government securities over long-term ones because they are less sensitive to interest-rate changes.

There are some legal restrictions on the types of investments that Greenspan can hold. For example, he is prohibited from owning the stock of depository institutions like banks and thrifts as well as the stock issued by primary dealers of U.S. government bonds. But he is allowed to hold other types of stocks.

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If the #1 financial man in the world - who controls the markets by his decisions - has ZERO per cent of his money in stocks or bonds, that tells a clear picture of what he believes will happen in probably the very near future. BEAR MARKET!

Here is man whose listed investments are valued in the range of $2.5 million to $6.4 million - AND HE HAS ZILCH in stocks and or bonds. Nada! Nichts. Niete. Here is a man who publicly said the markets are demonstrating IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE in December 1996, when the DOW was a mere 6000. Today the DOW is 87% higher (that's eight-seven per cent) at 11200! My God, a cretin could conclude the #1 financial man in the world KNOWS beyond any shadow of doubt a MARKET CRASH of Biblical proportions is looming on the horizon.

THINK OF IT, Greenspan has not penny one in Wall Street.

However, based on his well-documented writings from the 1960s and 1970s, you can bet your bottom dollar he well has some gold stashed away - perhaps even a heap of gold. A leopard cannot change his spots.

Greenspan may be a lackey of the governement which pays his salary, but ol' Alan "ain't" no schmuck!

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 27, 1999

Answers

Andy: Monkey see monkey do.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), August 27, 1999.

No :)

Orangutan see orangutan do!

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 27, 1999.

This information has been around for awhile. Going from memory, I think he bailed out 2-3 years ago. If my recollection is accurate, the market would have to drop by 50% to get back to his sale point. I think AG is absolutely brilliant, but he is not much of a market timer. He's been nervous all the way up, so he's missed a good deal of potential profits.

I think he had his investments in a blind trust before liquifying, so I don't believe he turned to cash to avoid conflict-of-interest charges. Don't misunderstand- I think the market is a house of cards, but don't look to AG to time the top.

mike

-- mike (maples@voy.net), August 27, 1999.

Actually Andy, it's been pretty widely reported that the reason he is in T-Bills is for the conflict of interest, not because he doesn't like stocks.

Of course, he does have several hundred thousand in near monies.

He's also reached the average life expectancy. He doesn't need to risk his money in stocks. Even after he retires, he will still be able to collect huge fees from speaking engagements.

I don't think you should read where his money is as any indication of the current situation on Wall Street. The bubble will burst with or without Greenspan.

-- nothere nothere (notherethere@hotmail.com), August 27, 1999.

There is a ratio called the DOW/Gold ratio (divide the DOW by the price of gold). The average range is 3 to 8, approximately 5 as an average. When market corrects (bears and crashs) occure it can be driven as low as 0.5 to 1.5 or so. There are three instances where the DOW/Gold ratio has topped. First in 1929 at about 23. Second in the 1967-8 timeframe when it hit 28 or so. Today at 44.9 . The DOW/Gold ratio has never spent more than 1% of its time above the 95% marker (these peaks and just below).

You must understand what this indicates and "irrational exuberance" is putting it mildly. If we connect the peaks of 1929 and 1968 we should have had a peak in the area of 33 to 35 today. The reason it is higher is because gold has been manipulated lower by the Central Banks through a leasing scam which was designed to flood the market with physical gold at a time when the financial markets were starting to crack.

Another point is that gold in 1929 and 1968 was fixed in price vs the US$. Now it is floating.

The next 'correction/crash/bear market' situation will drive the DOW down by a good deal more than most people expect and gold will rise to meet that figure (something that most people also do not expect).

Figures have been discussed with regard to gold in the $1,000 to $5,000 range which would be pretty close if the DOW dropped anywhere from 50 to 90% as is typical in these market rebalancings. In 1929 the DOW dropped 90%. In 1970's the DOW dropped 75% and continued to lose in relationship to inflation and other competetive money products. SOme have called this period a 'rolling depression'.

-- ;-) (somewhere.close@and.far.away), August 27, 1999.