As Alan Greenspan went out to pasture with his shiny, black briefcase, leaving the chores of an $8 trillion US debt to successor Ben Bernanke, CNBC spent a week hyping an oil painting of the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman on his last day on the arduous job of managing those well-oiled monetary printing presses.

Yes, on "Pom-Pom TV" Greenspan's controversial monetary policies that included the greasing of the U.S. economy with freshly-minted dollars took a backseat to an oil painting. Picasso's works never got this kind of play.

Even some American writers were appalled by the gushing over Greenspan. "The greatest lovefest since Woodstock," Barry Ritholtz, a columnist at The Street.com, aptly described Greenspan's retirement.

Glowing tributes of Uncle Al's 18-year reign poured in from Wall Street and Washington. The Greenspan Fan Club worshipped him as The Maestro. Some lionized him as the greatest U.S. central banker ever. Ignoring the fact that the Nasdaq index is still down more than 50 per cent from when the Fed-inflated bubble burst, they praised him for economic stability.

Next they'll be erecting a statue of The Maestro on Wall Street.

To his credit, Greenspan did oversee the greatest expansion of economic growth in the U.S., but not everyone is enthralled by his track record.

Yet, CNBC somehow neglected to provide a balanced perspective from a long list of his detractors that includes many of the most respected financial advisers.

Investment guru Peter Grandich is one of many experts who believe that the U.S. is on the verge of a financial calamity that could have profound repercussions worldwide.

"Americans have been robbing Peter to pay Paul, but Peter is tapped out," Grandich recently wrote in his Grandich Letter.

Grandich's angst is over the U.S. government deficit that is pegged at $8 trillion US (Canada's deficit is about $700 billion). Then there's the U.S. trade deficit that is expected to come in at about $700 billion US for 2005.

"It cannot continue and when it does break, our dollar will become the 21st century peso," writes Grandich.

Grandich is a gold bull who believes that the U.S. dollar will resume its downward spiral later this year, which would have disastrous implications for many Canadian manufacturers dependent on the U.S. market.

Canadian gold guru John Embry, chief investment strategist at Sprott Asset Management, has never been a fan of Greenspan.

"The great inflator," Embry quipped late last year when asked about Greenspan's legacy on Report On Business TV.

Richard Daughty, the publisher of the Mogambo Guru Economic Newsletter known for outrageous rants over the Fed's monetary gymnastics, won't make the guest list of the Greenspan retirement parties.

Here was his "tribute" to Greenspan in a column at 321gold.com: "They say Alan Greenspan is going to open his own consultancy, which I think is a good idea. When the results of his disastrous monetary policy start becoming more and more obvious, angry groups of people will be thankful to know just where he is, so that they can march down there as an angry, unruly mob, brandishing flamed torches and dragging him out into the street, given a quick kangaroo-court trial with me as judge ('Guilty, you stinking bastard') and thrown into some stinking prison cell, sort of like my office but not as drab or messy."

Prominent U.S. investment letter publisher Richard Russell of the Dow Theory Letters also paints a bleak picture for the U.S. economy, and consequently is advising investors to move some of their assets into gold, which he refers to as the "fourth major currency" (after the U.S. dollar, the yen and the euro).

"What if U.S. consumers can't pay their bills and they cut back on spending?" asks Russell, in his letter to subscribers.

"If that happens, I see the Fed really opening the floodgates of liquidity and at the same time cutting interest rates. If that occurs, the U.S. dollar will become highly suspect, and I think there would be a panic out of dollars into the euro or gold or the yen."

Another prominent investment adviser, Jim Dines of The Dines Letter, believes that Bernanke, the former professor of economics at Princeton University who has already been dubbed the "Printing Press" in some circles, is doomed to failure.

Dines, in his annual forecast issue for 2006, writes: "American tax cuts combined with soaring military spending, and the artificially low interest rates manipulated by Fedhead Greenspan, are chickens who have yet to come home to roost ... Bernanke does not have a clue, starting with his belief that 'inflation' is synonymous with higher prices instead of an increase in the money supply and credit. Systematically raising and lowering rates should be outlawed and instead be allowed to fluctuate in the free market. Bernanke will lead America to an economic disaster unless he awakens."

Renowned U.S. investment adviser Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital Inc., also had a less than flattering review of the Greenspan era.

"While the Greenspan Fed was certainly good for bankers and politicians, it was a disaster for the rest of America," writes Schiff. "In his wake, the long-term solvency of America's economy, its financial institutions, and most importantly, the integrity of its currency, all teeter on the brink.

"Rather than being a maestro, think of Greenspan as the Pied Piper who led Americans down a path to financial ruin. We all had a blast as the deceptively pleasing tune reverberated in our heads, but reality will set in when the music finally stops."

Somehow, at least one Fed basher managed to crash the Greenspan retirement bash on CNBC. The colourful economist/actor/columnist Ben Stein managed to get his two cents worth in before they went to commercial.

Piped an exasperated Stein of the U.S. Federal Reserve: "They're beating us over the head (with rising interest rates) and trying to push us into a recession for no reason."

Oh, about that Greenspan oil painting. It fetched $150,400 US on eBay.

"It absolutely takes my breath away," the artist, Erin Crowe, gushed of the portrait.

Judging by the debtload in the U.S. that accumulated under Greenspan's watch and exacerbated by President George W. Bush's military spending, there may be a lot more Americans gasping for air.

Who knows? Some day, that much-ballyhooed Alan Greenspan portrait may come in handy. As a dartboard.

SAGE WORDS: "If I seem unduly clear to you, you must have misunderstood what I said."

- Alan Greenspan, master of Fedspeak, whose wife says he had to propose marriage three times before she understood him.

(Gyle Konotopetz can be reached at gyle@businessedge.ca)