Greenspan has his share of critics, including some who charge that he has succeeded more by style than substance.

"To them, these traits don't mask the shortcomings in a man who got to be Fed chairman in much the way Clinton got to be president--by impressing people with his intelligence, working to make people like him and holding his finger to the wind," an April 1995 Washingtonian magazine article wrote of Greenspan.

Despite the general praise that has been lavished on his long tenure as Fed chair and the booming economy that has resulted, a renewal of Greenspan for another four-year term is not yet certain. And this is only a matter of timing.

His third term runs out in the middle of a presidential election. According to one scenario, Clinton may leave the decision up to Vice President Al Gore '69. And if the Democrats regain control of the Senate, they may want to have someone from within the party at the helm of the Fed.

And if the presupposed Republican contender Texas Governor George W. Bush is elected, bad blood from his father's presidential tenure could spoil another Greenspan term.

While the Fed was set up to be an apolitical organization to control the nation's money, it far from upholds that aspect of its task--the position has become intensely political, many say. Greenspan acknowledges the political nature of his job arguing that it can be dealt with appropriately as a matter of style and personality.

"I think you can deal with people in one of two ways, either by force or by persuasion," he told the Los Angeles Times in a 1991 interview. "If you can't deal with them by persuasion, you're not as effective. And I don't enjoy confrontation, to tell you the truth."

Social Butterfly

For all of the reserve Greenspan demonstrates in his public duties, his private life is more active--primarily involving the ritzy social circles of Washington and New York where Greenspan and his wife have extensive contacts.

In the 1970s he dated ABC News correspondent Barbara Walters. Before that, Greenspan had been paired with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).

Greenspan and Andrea Mitchell had a courtship that spanned nearly 12 years, and friends say the couple, who married in April 1997 are remarkably close.

"[They are] romantic, I guess they are still newlyweds," says Woodruff, who with her husband, journalist Al Hunt, often socialize with Greenspan and Mitchell. "They know each other very well--they are just a fun-loving couple that complement each other beautifully. She reads his mind, and I think he probably reads hers. They are just very dear, dear people."

That closeness does not extend to their professional lives in which the couple intentionally avoid any overlap between Andrea Mitchell's journalistic duties and Greenspan's area of expertise.

"He keeps his work very private and we lead very separate professional lives," Andrea Mitchell says. "We draw very clear lines. I think it's worked very well because I've been able to pursue a lot of my interests in foreign policy and in political coverage while avoiding any involvement in [the] reporting of economic issues. It's been a very carefully constructed firewall."

And for all the power that he wields Greenspan is said to showcase little of that power. Until he was married he was taken to work from his apartment in the Watergate (where former Senator and Republican presidential candidate Robert J. Dole and his wife Elizabeth lived) in a government-provided Mercury sedan.