Greenspan to blame for current economic woes?

[joeybee12]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23738353/

Perhaps the Maestro composed some discordant notes after all.

The record of longtime Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan -- worshipped by business leaders and dubbed "Maestro" in a 2000 biography by The Post's Bob Woodward -- is getting a critical look as his successor Ben S. Bernanke wrestles with problems that began on the Maestro's watch.

Many economists blame Greenspan for lax bank supervision and for keeping interest rates too low, too long from mid-2003 to mid-2004. That, the theory goes, fueled the housing bubble and spawned subprime and adjustable-rate mortgages for low-income people, vast numbers of whom can't make their payments now. Banks bought those mortgages in bundles that are worth far less than they originally were. That has led to big write-offs, shaking the entire financial system.

__________________________

Don't see why they need a whole article to answer the question posed as the article's title? The answer is YES!

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

1. Of course he is.

I have maintained forever that he should have begun slowly but steadily ramping up the interest rates when it became clear that we were in a housing boom that resembled tulip mania.

Many, many, many people could see that house prices were escalating into an unsustainable stratosphere that would be all the more crippling the longer it lasted. We had historical precedent for the boom in the eighties and we had Japan to look at as a cautionary tale.

Greenspan CONSCIOUSLY kept it fueled because it was the ONLY thing keeping Bush's fake economy going. He said very late in the game that Americans should take out MORE ARMs and that too much of America's money was locked up in equity.

He really just wanted to keep it up and get out while the getting was good. Everything going on right now is a direct result of his loose fiscal control.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. And Now The Motherfucker Is Telling The Arabs To Dump Dollars

In a WSJ op-ed he's actually admitted that his keeping interest rates low was an important factor in the housing bubble - but basically said so what, who cares. In a recent speech in the Middle East on the inflation problem in the Arab World, he urged them to dump the dollar if they want to curb inflation.

[joeybee12]

5. Something tells me he changed all hsi dollars to euros a while

back and wants to amke a killing.

[annabanana]

3. msnbc. . . . hmmm. . . Interesting that today Andrea is front &

center with the passport scandal..Does she suddenly feel like she needs to justify her bonafides?

[joeybee12]

6. It still angers me that NBC has allowed her to cover stories when her

husband was part of the story...do they not even want the semblance of impartiality?

[rurallib]

4. 'the maestro' hit many discordant notes

he just wasn't around long enough to cover this one over.

[Javaman]

7. I see the ice is melting off the kiss greenspans ass media love fest. nt

[pretzel4gore]

8. they wanted to bankrupt 'society'

government being 'of, by and for' the people, strange how this outspoken reactionarky fact escapes notice! repukkkan god Reagan once said 'government is the problem, not the solution' and then their ole lady thatcher said 'There is no such thing as society, just private interests'....while their groovy norquist famously said 'government should be made small enough to drown in my toilet'...all this plus the known actions such as the stolen elections in 2k/04, 911, the illegal war in Iraq, and the lazy fair attitude towards biz regulation see subprime mortgages, that bush needed to create the concomittant fiction that the economy was booming even as the thing was being systemically destroyed, mihoped! When fat texas oilpigs begin dying of starvation, only then will anyone notice greenspan was one of the most outrageous criminals in US history (but fat texpigs will never miss a meal, being cannibals, so greenspan probably has nothing to worry about)

[JTFrog]

9. And look who wants to have him lead a foreclosure group:

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2430663920080324

Clinton proposes Greenspan lead foreclosure group

By Jeff Mason

WHITE PLAINS, New York (Reuters) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and other economic experts should determine whether the U.S. government needs to buy up homes to stem the country's housing crisis, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will propose on Monday.