The metaphor of the roller coaster may be one of the most overused in describing the recent economic ups and downs in the stock market.

Fortunately for all of us, it is becoming obsolete if, for no other reason, than no roller coaster known to man could go up and down as fast as the U.S. stock market has lately.

With a few words from one man, stock brokers have either very good days or very bad ones.

And while the vast majority of U.S. citizens have no idea who Alan Greenspan is, he is nonetheless one of the most powerful men in the world.

Until June 20, 2000, Alan Greenspan will be the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

He has held the position since he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, and every president to hold office since that time has seen fit to give him the power to respond to the threat of inflation by adjusting interest rates.

With every offhand remark that he makes, the market plummets or soars.

He is, by most measures, an economic genius.

With vague comments about lowering interest rates, Greenspan can single-handedly change the direction of our nation’s financial institutes and, consequently, the lives of millions.

A financial firestorm that ravages the Asian markets leaves the United States surprisingly unaffected.

In a recent address, Greenspan showed that he is all too aware of the role he plays when he stated, “It is no wonder that we at the Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank and ultimate guardian of the purchasing power of our money are subject to unending scrutiny.

“Indeed, it would be folly were it otherwise.”

For decades it was debated whether or not the United States, as a democratic society, should even have a central bank.

It was viewed as a threat to Democracy.

The debate is largely moot in our times, but it seems contrary to its own purposes for the economic fate of our nation to rest so heavily on the words of one man.

Perhaps the concerns of our forebears were not so unfounded.

We are not out of the woods yet.