Greenspan: I didn't do it!

[FRED]

Re: Greenspan: I didn't do it!

"My evil plan to destroy the world economy has worked beyond my wildest dreams!"

[GRG55]

Re: Greenspan: I didn't do it!

iTulip calls "bullshit" on Greenspan: Fueling the FIRE Economy

And so does Caroline Baum...

Greenspan Forgets Where He Put His Asset Bubble

[Supercilious]

Re: Greenspan: I didn't do it!

It's bull. Yes the China savings were a cause for the housing bubble, but who helped engineer the trade imbalance and dollar recycling which started everything?

This is like saying: "It is not my fault the widow is broken. It was hit by a rock flying through the air" and forgetting to mention who actually supplied the slingshots to the kids, when it is obvious for everybody that kids, slingshots and windows don't fit well together unless you work for the window-repair man. Greenspam is full of it.

[FRED]

Re: Greenspan: I didn't do it!

And so does Caroline Baum...

Greenspan Forgets Where He Put His Asset Bubble

"Everyone on the iTulip.com management team has a name that's a take-off on Alan Greenspan, Larry Summers, and others that come and go from the scene as the financial drama that started with the Asia crisis in 1997 continues to unfold. It's more a fraternity than a formal organization, unified by a shared desire to keep the system functioning. My favorite target is Greenspan. Right now he's enjoying a reputation as the smartest central banker in history. But he's making nearly the same mistakes as his predecessors in the 1920s, providing too much liquidity at the wrong time, fueling a speculative mania during a time of rapid technological innovation. What will be learned from this -- again -- is that the Fed's rate and money supply moves can distort the market's utilization of capital, leading to credit and asset value excesses and potentially a bust. Greenspan may not go down in history as a hero." - iTulip, Nov. 1998

These things take a while to get through.

[santafe2]

Re: Greenspan: I didn't do it!

I was beginning to think those 1% interest rates helped inflate the housing bubble, but now that I know it was a billion Chinese with an annual per capita income of about $4,000 saving all that money, I feel a lot better now.

With apologies to Matt Groening and Bart...
Bart.jpg

[jtabeb]

Re: Greenspan: I didn't do it!

Perhaps, as it is said, a leopard does not change his spots. Greenspan is a hard money man, and his actions speak louder than words... In in context, his actions only make sense if he was hell bent into creating a system implossion.

Been saying that ever since I read "Atlas Shrugged", it has fallen on deaf ears round here (with a few exceptions).

[c1ue]

Re: Greenspan: I didn't do it!

Perhaps, as it is said, a leopard does not change his spots. Greenspan is a hard money man, and his actions speak louder than words... In in context, his actions only make sense if he was hell bent into creating a system implossion.

That may be true.

But it is also true that when Greenspan wrote the paper, hard money still existed and was economic orthodoxy.

Specifically that the US had the gold, and the US establishment benefitted most from having hard money.

But when Greenspan became Fed chair, he was no longer even in the Bretton Woods era. Hard money was now the foe of the US establishment.

So a Greenspan devious plot to bring back gold dollars is certainly possible.

But equally possible is a Greenspan just being a straw in the wind (and a well paid one).

[LargoWinch]

Re: Greenspan: I didn't do it!

Perhaps, as it is said, a leopard does not change his spots. Greenspan is a hard money man, and his actions speak louder than words... In in context, his actions only make sense if he was hell bent into creating a system implossion.

Sapiens, it appears to me that sinking the ship in the middle of the Antarctic ocean seems like a very bad way to teach your crew how to swim.

[For those unaware about Greenspan being a hard money man and fully grasp Sapiens' metaphor, please visit this: http://www.321gold.com/fed/greenspan/1966.html ]

[Sapiens]

Re: Greenspan: I didn't do it!

Just because he understands what he was doing, doesn't mean necessarily it was an altruistic decision.

I didn't say it was an altruistic decision, but it is more as a vanity play.

If you get the inside joke, it is about Proverbs, and Greenspan is anything but meek or humble.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Greenspan: I didn't do it!

Once the Vatican used to believe the Earth was the centre of the universe and the Sun revolved around the Earth.

In our own time, the central banks and economists believe in Keynsianism and supply-side economics, so little has changed in human history except that the central bankers now have changed place with the Vatican.

Despite repeated failures of policy, sorry episodes of inflation worldwide, the current hyper-inflation in Zimbabwe, warnings from the Bank of Japan about their fifteen failures of stimulus policy, the central banks refuse to change their thinking. Like the Vatican of olde, everything must adhere dogma, regardless of observation and regardless of evidence to the contrary.

Rather than having a hidden-agenda of destroying the economy, Greenspan adhered to Keynsian dogma--- and with the best of intentions. No surprise here, this is how central bankers behave.

And when Bernanke took control of the Fed, failures of Keynsian policy ( 1% interest rates under Greenspan ) were compounded by trillion dollar stimulus injections, endless bail-outs to banks, and 0% interest rates. So a garden variety economic down-turn was quickly turned into an economic panic and economic contastrophe (sp?) in the fall of 2008.

No surprise, there has been no recovery in the world economy this winter. In fact, the American and world economy have continued to descend into depression.

And the risk is that when the bottom of the economic down-turn is reached, at whatever depth it is, the Keynsian inflation begins and takes-root in the world economy and especially in America. That is why gold is holding the $900 level, regardless of current deflation in commodity prices.

The message from gold is that the central bankers are lost and have no understanding of the problem they face. The risk is now that inflation will re-emerge worldwide, regardless of economic depression, and compound the contastrophe (sp?).

[Sapiens]

Re: Greenspan: I didn't do it!

The message from gold is that the central bankers are lost and have no understanding of the problem they face.

They know very well what they are doing. Witness the fact they always come out on top of whatever political system is in place.

I speak from experience, I have been practicing Usury close to 50 years, although in the beginning I didn't know it was Usury. And it didn't become evident until I dedicated 8 full years of my life to know the fundamental secret.

In regards to Gold, it is nothing but a tool. A tool you can leverage to fund your next opportunity to continue your existence.

The risk is now that inflation will re-emerge worldwide, regardless of economic depression, and compound the catastrophe.

For the masses inflation would be a very good thing if it would re-emerge, however, you would be hard pressed to find one of my Peers that would lend to anyone without substantial collateral. So don't hold your breath for now waiting for inflation.

[Starving Steve]

If Greenspan wasn't involved in a hidden-agenda or conspiracy to destroy the entire world economy--- which I don't think he was--- then Greenspan was even worse than a "shlamiel". The absolute worst possible dangerous idiot in Yiddish is deemed a "shlamazzle". Greenspan was a shlamazzle, pronounced: shlahmahzzole.

What is interesting to me, what makes me wonder, is WHY a shlamazzle like Greenspan was chosen to head the Fed???????? Who did the selecting, Ronald Reagan?

Another question: WHY isn't Bernanke fired? WHY isn't Bernanke even questioned at the Fed and in public, especially now after seven or eight months of collassle (sp?) policy failure?

Another question which is bothering me now: WHY didn't the SEC do something to investigate Madoff????? (Fifty BILLION dollars of ponzi scheme and NOT ONE SHARE of stock purchased for anyone; how could that happen over a period of 20 years and the SEC do nothing? )

A lot of issues are bothering me now. I am losing faith in the entire American system of free enterprise. How could the biggest idiots set policy at the Fed and the biggest crooks operate in the economy and no-one ever asked questions???????????

Why did Congress allow this? And why does Nancy Palosi need her $400,000 per year private plane to go from SF to Washington when she never asked any questions of Greenspan, nor Bernanke, nor the Fed, nor the SEC?????? Shouldn't the SEC head be in front of Congress explaining now?????? Why isn't Bush in front of Congress now explaining??????

[Sapiens]

Re: Greenspan: I didn't do it!

A lot of issues are bothering me now. I am losing faith in the entire American system of free enterprise. How could the biggest idiots set policy at the Fed and the biggest crooks operate in the economy and no-one ever asked questions???????????

"Treason doth never prosper; what's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason." Sir John Harrington, 1561-1612

or

"Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue." -Seneca. Hercules Furens. i. 1, 255.

[santafe2]

Re: Greenspan: I didn't do it!

...Greenspan was even worse than a "shlamiel". The absolute worst possible dangerous idiot in Yiddish is deemed a "shlamazzle".

Yup, and outed over 30 years ago here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRmKzxhMzwo

Was he just doing it his way?