Bulls, bears and Greenspan

ALAN GREENSPAN, chairman of the Federal Reserve, says that when he changes interest rates, share prices are not his target. But that is not how it seems on Wall Street, where it has long been an article of faith that you “don't fight the Fed.” In recent years, this rule has repaid its followers handsomely. When the Fed is raising rates, as it has been this year, America's stockmarket performance tends to be poor. But when Mr Greenspan's monetary policy has been looser, as in late 1998, after the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management, and late last year to ease millennium-bug fears, share prices have soared (see chart).