Does "the staff ragged in search of seemingly arcane data" mean ...

Greenspan was running the staff ragged in search of seemingly arcane data.

run someone ragged
Fig. to keep someone or something very busy. This busy season is running us all ragged at the store. What a busy day. I ran myself ragged.
See also: ragged, run
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

run somebody ragged
to make someone very tired, usually by making them work too hard What with party preparations and having to look after the kids all this week, I've been run ragged.
See also: ragged, run
Cambridge Idioms Dictionary, 2nd ed. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006. Reproduced with permission.

"running [someone] ragged" is a phrase which means making someone work harder than humanly possible (working them so hard they become rags). It's not meant literally, but figuratively it means they were running around looking for this and that and trying to keep up with the crazy requests being made of them.

BTW, does "Greenspan put" mean "Greenspan said"?

The "Greenspan Put" refers to the monetary policy approach that Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Board, and other Fed members exercised from the late 1987 to 2000.

The term "Put" refers to a put option, in which the buyer of the put acquires the right to sell an asset at a particular price to a counterparty; as such it is exercised if prices decline beneath this level.

the Greenspan put, an insurance policy or guaranteed floor in the minds of stock investors