Greenspan to Kucinich: No one could have imagined millions of subprime mortgages going south!

[dailykoff]

Claims he's just now discovering "flaws" in his "worldview" that caused him to erroneusly beleve that deregulating financial trading wouldn't lead to this outcome.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

"Greenspan Calls Financial Crisis A 'Credit Tsunami'"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96023610

[fascisthunter]

1. Well Greenspan.... You Either Discredit Your Ability as an Economist

or you are a criminal.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. DUH!!! So NOW Greenspan sees the flaws in his world view???

Too little, too late you old fart.

[Indenturedebtor]

4. BULLSHEEEEET as if he never read about the Great Depression

what a crock of shit.

[lynettebro440]

3. Uh greenspan

wasn't that your fucking job?

[dailykoff]

5. "Greenspan Concedes to `Flaw' in His Market Ideology"

Greenspan Concedes to `Flaw' in His Market Ideology (Update2)

By Scott Lanman and Steve Matthews
Bloomberg.com
October 23, 2008

Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said a ``once-in-a-century credit tsunami'' has engulfed financial markets and conceded that his free-market ideology shunning regulation was flawed.

``Yes, I found a flaw,'' Greenspan said in response to grilling from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. ``That is precisely the reason I was shocked because I'd been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.''

Greenspan said he was ``partially'' wrong in opposing regulation of derivatives and acknowledged that financial institutions didn't protect shareholders and investments as well as he expected.

``We cannot expect perfection in any area where forecasting is required,'' he said. ``We have to do our best but not expect infallibility or omniscience.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_IH5AnCyOm4&refer=home

[LWolf]

6. What next?

I suppose we're supposed to pat him on the back for suddenly "seeing flaws."

[Irish Girl]

7. Wasn't Greenspan knighted by the Queen for his "contribution to global economic stability"??

Oh the irony.

:rofl:

[Romulox]

8. I didn't see this coming, BUT...I see what must be done with absolute precision!

This is precisely the argument of every bailout booster out there.

[4lbs]

9. Wait, what? No one could have imagined the predatory subprime mortgages going south?

What about the several already well known articles back before 2002 warning about such a thing?

Remember that TIME Magazine article that came out before 2000 in which Brooksley Born warned about this very thing happening because of the deregulation that was about to take place.

Here it is:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/10-15

In 1997, Brooksley Born warned in congressional testimony that unregulated trading in derivatives could "threaten our regulated markets or, indeed, our economy without any federal agency knowing about it." Born called for greater transparency--disclosure of trades and reserves as a buffer against losses.

Instead of heeding this oracle's warnings, Greenspan, Rubin & Summers rushed to silence her. As the Times story reveals, Born's wise warnings "incited fierce opposition" from Greenspan and Rubin who "concluded that merely discussing new rules threatened the derivatives market." Greenspan deployed condescension and told Born she didn't know what she doing and she'd cause a financial crisis. (A senior Commission director who worked with Born suggests that Greenspan and the guys didn't like her independence. " Brooksley was this woman who was not playing tennis with these guys and not having lunch with these guys. There was a little bit of the feeling that this woman was not of Wall Street.")

In early 1998, according to the Times story, one of the guys, Larry Summers, called Born to "chastise her for taking steps he said would lead to a financial crisis. But Born kept at it, unwilling to let arrogant men undermine her good judgment. But it got tougher out there. In June 1998, Greenspan, Rubin and the then head of the SEC, Arthur Levitt, Jr., called on Congress "to prevent Ms. Born from acting until more senior regulators developed their own recommendations." (Levitt now says he regrets that decision.) Months later, the huge hedge fund Long Term Capital Management nearly collapsed--confirming some of Born's warnings. (Bets on derivatives were a key reason.)

[bemildred]

10. I suppose "I'm a moron" is better than "I'm a crook". nt