It’s never too late to blame Greenspan
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Alan Greenspan hasn’t been chairman of the Fed for three years, but his policy mistakes keep paying dividends in the form of blame at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos.
Polish Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski yesterday:
“This was the failure of one of the key institutions in the world.” During the Greenspan era he said they continually met downturns and distress with easing and “eliminated fear.”
Ken Rosen of Berkeley, who was writing about the housing bubble in 2005 or so, is in the same camp:
“Alan Greenspan personally prevented some needed regulations being put in place. The free market fundamentalism we had was a mistake, to go the other way would also be a mistake.
We had excessively loose monetary policy and regulations on these aggressive loans were not put in place. There were Fed board members who wanted to do it, and Greenspan himself said the had too much belief in the market. …it was a global problem of excess credit led by the central bank in the U.S. but ratified by the central banks around the world.”
Maybe history will be kinder to his reputation as a jazz musician.
James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
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I do not believe there are enough adjectives in existence to describe the incredible damage one man, Alan Greenspan, has caused the US. He printed money like a mad man, kept interest rates artificially low for far too long (giving rise to the housing bubble and the credit bubble) and he was totally opposed to regulating the derivatives markets saying the banks could monitor themselves.
In addition he argued everyone should get an adjustable rate mortgage, which many pople did.
In short everything the man did while head of the FR was destructive to our country and to capitalism. He was at one time a brilliant man but checked his brilliance at the door when he became head man of the FR.
Mr. Greenspan committed Financial Treason.
Davos 2009 Conference Shows The World At An Economic Crossroads……
http://wcgfairfield.blogspot.com/2009/01 /davos-2009-conference-shows-world-at.h tml
Greenspan is at the center of the financial collapse by, as has been pointed out, actively preventing regulation but also by fostering obfuscation, let us not forget how the esoteric geniuses at LTCM almost blew up the global financial system in 1998 while playing with exotic derivatives, before being bailed out by dear Alan.
I am utterly fascinated by this arrogant little man, who even after his own mess had spectacularly hit the fan shows up in Congress to admit being “partially wrong”.