Feldstein, through his NBER office, declined to comment on the AIG matter.
Greenspan, 79, has indicated that he plans to step down next January from the job he has held since 1987.
 
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White House officials have indicated that they are in no hurry to name Greenspan's successor, both to avoid undermining his effectiveness and because they have many other economic positions to fill within the administration.
Karl Rove, Bush's deputy chief of staff, told Bloomberg News last week that it would be "a little premature" to announce Greenspan's replacement before the end of this year. But that hasn't stopped traders, analysts, investors and political observers from speculating about the choice. The administration started compiling names of possible candidates three years ago.
The list includes Feldstein, Columbia Business School Dean R. Glenn Hubbard, 46, and Fed board member Ben S. Bernanke, 51. All have stellar academic credentials and experience in national economic policymaking.
Hubbard served as chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers from 2001 until February 2003, helped craft the administration's 2003 tax cut and has remained an administration adviser. Bernanke, former chairman of Princeton University's economics department, was appointed to the Fed by Bush in 2002, and has been chosen by Bush to become the next CEA chairman later this year.
The race is "hard to handicap," said William C. Dudley, chief economist at Goldman Sachs U.S. Economic Research Group.
Hubbard is closer to White House officials than the other two. Bernanke has more expertise on Fed policy. But Feldstein has greater seniority and stature in the economics profession.
Feldstein, who has taught at Harvard University for decades, served as Reagan's CEA chairman and is renowned for his pioneering research on how taxes affect business and consumer behavior. Because of that work, he is considered the father of "supply side" economics -- the idea that cutting taxes stimulates economic growth.
"Marty Feldstein is one of the giants of the economics business," Dudley said.
But Feldstein also has detractors among some White House allies who haven't forgiven him for criticizing the federal budget deficits that resulted in part from tax cuts during the Reagan administration.
"I just don't trust Marty Feldstein, and I think that's the view of most supply-siders like myself," said Steve Moore, president of the Free Enterprise Fund, a group that is lobbying for private Social Security accounts, Bush's top political priority this year.
Technically, the Fed is responsible primarily for setting interest rate policy and regulating banks. But Greenspan turned the job into that of national "economist-in-chief," influencing policy on taxes, deficits, entitlement programs, trade and other issues, Moore said. Therefore, he said, economic conservatives will expect any potential successor to share their positions on those issues.
When you add Feldstein's AIG connection to such political "considerations," Schlesinger said, "the folks making the decision might push a little farther down the list."
Staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.
