Alan Greenspan, acknowledged to be the world’s greatest economic leader of our generation, packed his bags at the Fed today, and headed into what will hopefully be a happy, and is certainly a most deserved retirement. Greenspan is a fascinating and engaging character, and has been instrumental in keeping the US economy, and thus the Global Economy ticking for the past 18 years.

Here’s hoping that his successor, Ben Bernanke will have similar levels of success when he takes up the reins tomorrow morning. He’s not taking the economy on at it’s most challenging time, however, perhaps somewhat omniously, there is a tradition of a major upset in finincal markets occuring just after a new Fed chief takes the reins over the past number of successions.