Alan Greenspan may have retired but he clearly wants to stay busy.
The 79-year-old, who has just stepped down as chairman of the US Federal Reserve after 18 years, has already lined up a new job as "honorary adviser" to the chancellor, Gordon Brown.
In a short statement, the Treasury said Mr Greenspan, who has a habit of reading economic data in the bath, will advise Mr Brown on "issues relating to global economic change".
Mr Brown is a great admirer of America's entrepreneurial culture. In many a speech, the chancellor has made very clear his wish that Britons take to their garden sheds or garages in order to come up with the UK's versions of Microsoft and Google.
The chancellor is also a great admirer of Mr Greenspan, whom he considers a "rock of stability", even though the former Fed chairman once got carried away into thinking that the US had transformed itself into a "new economy" during the internet craze.
Mr Brown will no doubt want to pick Mr Greenspan's brain as to how Britain can compete in the age of globalisation, particularly with the rise of India and China, the latter of which has just overtaken Britain as the world's fourth biggest economy.
The chancellor has won many plaudits for his handling of the economy, which has enjoyed uninterrupted growth since Labour came to power in 1997 with low interest rates and low unemployment. But the jobless rate is creeping up as the economy shows signs of running out of steam. Many economists predict that the next few years will be rather more challenging for Mr Brown, so what better time to enlist a top economic guru.
