• Predicting increased odds of a recession. Interestingly, according to the Wall Street Journal [subscription required], he now thinks a very large inventory of unsold homes is putting pressure for quick sales which could lead to far bigger price declines -- pinching home equity, increase subprime default rates, pressuring consumer spending, and increasing the probability of a recession to "more than a third."
• Warning on globalization's boost to inflation. He suggests that globalization could lead to higher inflation -- citing recent increases in the price of imports from China and a rise in long-term interest rates -- to suggest that inflation will exceed the Fed's 1% to 2% target sooner than some think. And he thinks that the cure will be much higher interest rates -- along the lines of the 18% rates that Fed Chair Paul Volcker used in the early 1980s to crush inflationary expectations. Greenspan questions whether there will be sufficient political will to pay the economic price -- in the form of slow growth and stagnant asset appreciation -- needed to control this inflation.

The media scramble for this book must be pleasing to its publisher. When the Wall Street Journal [subscription required] bought a copy and wrote a front page story which appeared on its web site last Friday night, the New York Times [registration required] decided to publish its story -- which it had been holding until today in exchange for obtaining an advanced copy -- Friday night on its Web site.

Greenspan must be counting on all the attention to be magnified by the importance of his successor's decision about interest rates -- due this Tuesday. On that front, a 25 basis point cut in the Fed Funds rate seems to be baked into the market. If Bernanke cuts rates more than 25 basis points, the markets will soar. If not, I think there'll be some profit taking.

No doubt, Greenspan misses being at the center of that power. But he's probably savoring all the attention his book is getting from the media.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.