Monday March 5 12:10 PM ET
Greenspan Celebrating 75th Birthday on March 6

By Caren Bohan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economists are starting to doubt the staying power of the U.S. economic expansion, which turned 10 years old this month, but not the vigor of the man credited with steering it -- Alan Greenspan.

The Federal Reserve chairman celebrates his 75th birthday Tuesday, just a few days after the anniversary of the record-breaking expansion that began in March 1991.

By all accounts, Greenspan appears as fit as ever -- maybe even ``exuberant,'' to borrow part of the famous expression the man himself used to describe the stock market in 1996.

That gives a worry-ridden Wall Street one less thing to fret about.

The U.S. central bank chairman was sworn in last June for a new four-year term which ends in 2004.

``You don't hear anything to suggest that he is not going to fill out his term,'' said James Annable, chief economist at WingspanBank. ``He is certainly on top of his job and on top of his game. He seems more vigorous than the day he was confirmed by the Senate.''

Annable, a former Fed economist, met with Greenspan on the day of his Senate confirmation to head the central bank in August 1987.

He noted that Greenspan's back had been bothering him at the time but that problem seems to have cleared up.

The Fed chief is an avid tennis player, which may be helping him keep up his good health.

He has been out and about quite a bit lately, for instance, jetting off to Palermo in Italy for a Group of Seven meeting. He has also headed to Capitol Hill for a series of hearings -- each of them hours long -- about monetary policy and his controversial support for tax cuts.

Meanwhile the U.S. economic expansion, which is already the longest in history, is hobbling along, hit by a steep downturn in the stock market and rising energy costs.

Greenspan and his Fed colleagues have been trying to give the economy a shot in the arm, slashing interest rates by a full percentage point in January. More rate cuts are expected at the
Fed's next meeting on March 20.

But on his birthday, Greenspan will join friends for a power lunch.

He will be getting together with Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, ex-FBI and CIA director William Webster and former House Speaker Tom Foley. The three men share a birthday with Greenspan and have a tradition of celebrating together over lunch.

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