Greenspan explained his monetary strategy in similar, but less eloquent, terms, bluntly noting the state of what he called the ″traumatized worker.″ He was not referring to the traumatization of the unemployed workers, but rather that of the employed workers who dreaded the possibility of unemployment. Traumatization refers to a condition that causes people to suffer serious disorders—the kind with potentially grave consequences. The association of post-traumatic stress disorder and the threat of unemployment might seem farfetched, if the source were someone less eminent than Alan Greenspan.
As Robert Woodward reported, Greenspan saw the traumatized worker as ″someone who felt job insecurity in the changing economy and so was resigned to accepting smaller wage increases. He had talked with business leaders who said their workers were not agitating and were fearful that their skills might not be marketable if they were forced to change jobs.″ (Bob Woodward, Maestro: Greenspan′s Fed and the American Boom (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000; S.163)
