The Crash: Greenspan's Big Test

If any one man can decide how last week's market turmoil will affect the U.S. economy, and indeed that of the entire world, he is Alan Greenspan, 61. As chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, the soft-spoken economic forecaster is the ultimate arbiter of the nation's credit supply and thus of the interest rates at which money is lent throughout the U.S. banking system. On the job less than three months, Greenspan is suddenly being forced to make rapid and delicate decisions to prevent the market crash from turning into a mushrooming financial collapse and to stave off a steep recession....