Here it is...
Fed Ex-Chief Greenspan
To Advise Deutsche Bank
By
GREG IP
August 13, 2007; Page A2
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has a new client for his consulting business, one that reunites him with an adviser from his central-banking days.
Deutsche Bank AG announced today that it has retained Mr. Greenspan as a senior adviser to its corporate and investment-bank unit.
The arrangement was initiated by Peter Hooper, who served on the Fed staff during Mr. Greenspan's tenure and is now chief U.S. economist for Deutsche Bank Securities.
Details of the contract weren't disclosed.
Mr. Greenspan, now 81 years old, retired in February last year after 18 years at the Fed's helm. He has spent most of his time since speaking to private audiences -- appearances that commonly yield more than $100,000 -- and completing a book to be released next month.
In May, his consulting firm, Greenspan Associates, took on its first client: Pacific Investment Management Co., a unit of
Allianz SE. He plans to have no more than a dozen clients and no more than one from any given industry, ruling out any additional investment-bank clients. Robert Barnett, Mr. Greenspan's lawyer, said, that "virtually every major investment-banking firm" in the world was interested in hiring him.
Mr. Greenspan will speak at conferences and attend meetings and conference calls with Deutsche Bank clients, analysts and traders -- but not with the bank's asset-management arm because of his relationship with Pimco.
Mr. Greenspan said his selection of Deutsche was "more a personal thing than most anything else," citing his relationships with management board Chairman Josef Ackermann and Mr. Hooper. "The one thing I miss about the Federal Reserve is the small groups that used to get together and talk about issues or policies or concepts, which I can't fully replicate now. Peter was an integral part of that."
Mr. Hooper joined the Fed in 1973 and rose to deputy director of international finance. In 1998, he was one of three candidates to succeed the Fed's high-profile international finance chief, Edwin Truman, along with Karen Johnson and Lewis Alexander. Mr. Greenspan and his fellow governors elevated Ms. Johnson. The next year, Mr. Hooper went to Deutsche Bank, and Mr. Alexander went to Citigroup, and is now its chief economist. Ms. Johnson is retiring this year.
Deutsche Bank has made a concerted push to join the ranks of top investment banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley.
"Alan is uniquely qualified to help our clients make critical risk-management decisions," Mr. Ackermann said. He said he admires Mr. Greenspan's ability to "explain very complicated subjects and situations in simple terms."
He recalled an event in 2004 at which European Central Bank President Jean Claude Trichet told the two of them how to give short answers when asked how economic conditions are; if allowed one word, say "good," and if allowed two words, "not good." Mr. Ackermann says he then asked Mr. Greenspan, a skeptic of Europe's common currency, "his judgment on the euro so far -- in two words. His answer was: 'surprisingly good.' "
Write to Greg Ip at
greg.ip@wsj.com
