Oops, Alan Greenspan just said something....

[whistle]

<snip>
Greenspan: It's a 'credit tsunami'
Former Fed chairman says crisis will pass, and U.S. will end up with 'far sounder financial system.'
By Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com staff writer
October 23, 2008: 9:46 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told a House committee Thursday that the nation will emerge from the current credit crisis with a "far sounder financial system."

"We are in the midst of a once-in-a century credit tsunami," Greenspan told the House Oversight and Reform Committee in prepared testimony.

Greenspan said that whatever regulatory changes are made to respond to the crisis, "they will pale in comparison to the change already evident in today's markets."

He said that markets "will be far more restrained than would any currently contemplated new regulatory regime."

He added, "Investors, chastened, will be exceptionally cautious."

Greenspan was to be joined in his testimony by former Treasury Secretary John Snow and SEC Chairman Christopher Cox.

Greenspan offered some regulatory changes in his testimony, namely "to require that all securitizers retain a meaningful part of the securities they issue."

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/23/news/economy/committee_regulatory/index.htm?postversion=2008102309

...translation:

...The Fed money being pumped into the financial system is going not to additional lending, but to build up war-chests for takeovers and to cover known but as yet unreported losses. The big banks are planning to take over the smaller banks in droves, using taxpayer money to fund a dangerous concentration of the banking system into a small number of giant banks. Today's New York Times quotes an unnamed Treasury official as explicitly admitting that "Treasury doesn't want to prop up weak banks. One purpose of this plan is to drive consolidation."

Thus, of the $125 billion already being provided to the top banks in the first round of equity injections, $5 billion is going to help fund Wells Fargo's acquisition of Wachovia and Bank of America is getting $5 billion to aid its takeover of Merrill Lynch. All of this conveniently overlooks the fact that the biggest banks are the most bankrupt of all, and yet the smaller banks will be fed to them, in a desperate attempt to save these zombie banking giants.

This is what Ralph Nader calls corporatism and we should be using that terminology. All economic control will go to the large corporate central banks. Corporatism is fascism!

[babylonsister]

1. I sorta noticed he's not taking any responsibility-must be a rethug. nt

[rusty fender]

3. Greenspan is on CNN's Top Ten culprits of the financial collapse!

As is Phil Gramm. At least they've got this right.

[whistle]

5. Greenspan has always danced around responsibility but he created

...the financial crisis through his promotion of financial derivatives and the legitimization of the Michael Milken's criminal securities fraud practices:

Michael Milken

As an executive at investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc during the 1980s, Milken used high-yield junk bonds for corporate financing and mergers and acquisitions. He amassed an enormous personal fortune, but in 1989 he was indicted by a federal grand jury and eventually spent nearly two years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of securities fraud. While he is credited with founding the high-yield debt market, he was banned for life from the securities industry.

Nicknamed "The Junk Bond King" in the 1980s, Milken earned between $200 million and $550 million a year at the height of his success. Following his release from prison, he worked as a strategic consultant. This was in violation of his probation, and he was subsequently fined a $42 million for these actions. In 1993, Milken was diagnosed with prostate cancer; since then, he has devoted much of his time and resources to the pursuit of a cure for the disease.

Greenspan should be investigated and prosecuted for masterminding this whole financial debacle!

[greguganus]

7. Barbara Walters used to be his girlfriend, and now married to Andrea Mitchell.

Wonder what he's got that I don't got besides millions of dollars? Maybe bald men are better lovers.

[whistle]

12. How about hundreds of millions of dollars, but then would you really

...want to jump in the sack with Barbara Walters or Andrea Mitchell at any stage in their lives. There is something totally Ayn Rand-ish about those relationships.







...and the deer in the headlights shot:

[Threedifferentones]

9. LOL sercurities "industry"

Doesn't the word industry mean you actually create something? Does imaginary money count as something? Shouldn't it be "giant securities scam system?"

[whistle]

11. We often do use words rather blithely, to be accurate it is the "securities criminal syndicate"

[greguganus]

6. Clinton liked him enough to let him be chairman through his 8 years. n/t

[babylonsister]

8. And? Do you think he's not responsible for any of this current mess? nt

[dorkulon]

2. Jesus, everything's a tsunami these days.

America learned a word!

[Javaman]

4. well, it's certainly better than, "the mother of all...". nt

[gratuitous]

10. A tsunami, you know, a catastrophic event no one can predict

As opposed to a very deliberate, systematic dismantling of laws and regulation, lax enforcement of the laws still on the books, and turning loose the most rapacious predators to plunder the wealth of society for a quarter of a century. While a few people have realized fabulous wealth, the workers in this country have been working harder, working longer hours, and their wages have actually fallen. All the capital generated by that production has gone somewhere. And now here come the bankers and the financiers and they tell us that they need another $750 billion.

[whistle]

13. You are correct, this was no natural law event, it was an engineered financial

...breakdown where the winners at the top get all

[Chimichurri]

14. He just said (in the hearing) that he himself did not take out an

adjustable rate mortgage because he felt they were too risky!

However he touted them for the rest of us. I would consider him selling adjustable rate mortgages while knowing their danger, is beyond unethical. To me, it's criminal.