Greenspan: This Is The Worst Economy I've Ever Seen

[Wetzelbill]

Greenspan: This Is The Worst Economy I've Ever Seen


Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan offered a woeful outlook of America's economic situation on Sunday, saying the crisis with the country's financial institutions was as dire as he had ever seen in his long career, and predicting that one or more of those institutions would likely collapse in the near future.

"Oh, by far," Greenspan said, when asked if the situation was the worst he had seen in his career. "There's no question that this is in the process of outstripping anything I've seen and it still is not resolved and still has a way to go and, indeed, it will continue to be a corrosive force until the price of homes in the United States stabilizes. That will induce a series of events around the globe which will stabilize the system."

Appearing on ABC's This Week, Greenspan would not definitively say whether the government should come to the rescue of Lehman Brothers, which has been forced to consider a possible sale after its stock shares plunged drastically this past week. Instead he called the situation surrounding the investment bank -- and the bailout that occurred this past spring of Bear Stearns -- as a "once in a half century, probably once in a century type of event."

The circumstances for Lehman may, as Greenspan noted, be different. Bloomberg News reported on Friday: "Rising speculation that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. may fail is generating less concern among investors than when Bear Stearns Cos. imploded in March."

Much of the issue, Greenspan added, was the trouble in the housing market, which he predicted would become stabilized by next year. Pressed by host George Stephanopoulos as to whether another major financial institution -- such as the struggling Washington Mutual, American International Group, or Merrill Lynch -- would fail in the interim, the former Fed chair responded in the affirmative.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/14/greenspan-this-is-the-wor_n_126274.html

[rucky]

1. And he's pretty old. n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. Probably responsible for the first depression too.

[glowing]

2. The housing market will NOT stabilize until there are people with good paying jobs

to be able to buy them. AND its going to take the govt to enforce some kind of debt forgiveness for people's credit scores. All those people who foreclosed or face financial difficulties because of the horrible economy will NOT be able to buy a damn thing with a credit score of 400. Its going to take the govt working for the people, not off the backs of the people to get this mess straightened out...

[Greyhound]

19. That is exactly right and the issue they refuse to talk about.

Gramm & his band of looters pushed the hyper-inflationary finance reform through in order to fuel the artificial and unjustified inflation of real estate.

We were warned then that this is exactly what would happen and now it's too late. Prior to this travesty, there was an absolute link between wages and housing prices, IOW the price of housing could not outstrip wages simply because anything is worth only what you can sell it for and people were limited to paying what they earned over time to buy a house. The so-called sub-prime (a misnomer designed to implicate that the borrowers are beneath, or less than, when the fact of the matter is that it is the lenders and brokers that are at fault) loan industry allowed the hyper-inflation we saw and the only solution is to let the market return to it's supportable levels. Of course this is politically unmentionable because it means not only letting thousands of banks and other financial institutions go under, it also means Melvin & Martha Middleclass will take a hit on the value of their ticky-tacky huts too and expose how far beyond their means they are living.

Remind me again http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm-Leach-Bliley_Act">which President signed that bill?

[lonestarnot]

26. And McSame could give a rats ass about that. Have you heard him say 1 word

about the fact that he even recognizes this as a problem, let alone what he intends to do about it!

[marmar]

3. The chef doesn't like his own cooking?

:argh:

[trotsky]

8. Exactly what I thought.

This mess is just as much his fault as anyone else's. Dumbshit.

[lonestarnot]

4. Guess he knows a depression when he sees one! ROFLMAO

[Wetzelbill]

6. Going for the easy one huh?

:rofl:

[lonestarnot]

11. It's early, still on cup one!

:donut:

[Wetzelbill]

15. well let me know when you warm up

Because the jokes here practically write themselves, lol.

[MsLeopard]

5. OMG! You can't make this stuff up!

Irony alert!! Irony alert!! Too freaking funny! :rofl: :rofl:

[Wetzelbill]

case of selective memory from the man who excused Bush's tax cuts

because we were "paying down the deficit too fast." uh huh. :)

[Hubert Flottz]

7. And he helped Bush do it all!

[dogindia]

9. GRAMM, GRAMM, GRAMM, GRAMM and his connection to McCain

[whistle]

10. Correction Alan Greenspan, change that to..."This Is The Worst Economy I've Ever Created"

...Greenspan should not get to walk away from his responsibilities toward creating this mess

[lonestarnot]

12. 10 responses 2 recs.

:wtf:

[Jennicut]

13. Thanks Greenspan for giving us a most likely Depression. Thanks alot.

Jeez, I was young when Clinton was elected both times (16 and 20) but I distinctly remember this idiot from back then. He got us into this mess in the first place and now he has the audacity to claim its the worse economy he has ever been witness to? How does Andrea Mitchell aka Mrs. Balloons stay married to this fool?

[Wetzelbill]

16. I would sound like a horrible jerk

if I said out loud the reasons why I think she's married to him. :)

[JVS]

14. Greenspan, born in 1926, witnessed the Great Depression

[Odin2005]

18. Yeah, and? You helped cause it, Green$hit.

When you keep interest rates too low you are going to start blowing bubbles

[Breeze54]

20. 'Greenspan Says McCain Tax Cuts Will be Bad for the Economy'

Greenspan Says McCain Tax Cuts Need Budget Reductions (Update1)<---<<<

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=a.BrvyBtV8CM&refer=home

Bloomberg changed the title to this article!!!

snip-->

Greenspan said the widening income disparity among Americans is a ``very serious'' issue
that requires both raising the pay of lower- income workers and reducing higher incomes.

[Phred42]

21. Well, thanks for CREATING IT you Fascist Asshole!

Everyone should read Greenspan's Fraud by Ravi Batra

Greenspan will rot in hell for what he has been part of

Last time the Republicans did this it was called The Great Depression

[lonestarnot]

22. And McSame will continue with the same pattern of destruction.

[Arugula Latte]

23. Yeah, thanks in no small part to you and your policies, asshole.

:eyes:

[riverdeep]

24. The stimulus package didn't work?

Who'd a thunk?

[wryter2000]

25. Can I smack him now?

Please? I'm not a violent person, and I think the last time I hit someone was over 40 years ago, and it wasn't anything to write home about. But, I really, really want to smack this one upside his head.

[Wetzelbill]

27. I give you permission to do so

[lonestarnot]

28. I will sell tickets!