Greenspan is Shocked! Shocked, I tell you.

(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Badgered by lawmakers, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan denied the nation’s economic crisis was his fault on Thursday but conceded the meltdown had revealed a flaw in a lifetime of economic thinking and left him in a “state of shocked disbelief.”

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, describing the current financial crisis as a “once-in-a-century credit tsunami,” acknowledged Thursday that the crisis has exposed flaws in his thinking and in the workings of the free-market system.

Duh, do you think?   Maybe now we can drive a stake through the hearts wallets of the free market, federal reserve, and Alan Greenspan.

Rolex or shareholders?  BMW or equity?  Mmmm, who could have predicted bin Laden was determined to attack Greenspan.

Greenspan said he had made a “mistake” in believing that banks in operating in their self-interest would be sufficient to protect their shareholders and the equity in their institutions.

The head of the nation’s central bank for 18½ years, Greenspan said in his testimony to the committee that he and others who believed lending institutions would do a good job of protecting their shareholders are in a “state of shocked disbelief.”

Oh but, if we don’t protect CEO bonuses, they won’t take the money.

“Given the financial damage to date, I cannot see how we can avoid a significant rise in layoffs and unemployment,” Greenspan said. “Fearful American households are attempting to adjust, as best they can, to a rapid contraction in credit availability, threats to retirement funds and increased job insecurity.”

Everybody and everything is at fault except Greenspan.

Greenspan did not specifically address the criticism he is receiving now as being partly to blame for the current crisis.  In his testimony, Greenspan put the blame for the subprime collapse on over-eager investors who did not properly take into account the threats that would be posed once home prices stopped surging upward. “It was the failure to properly price such risky assets that precipitated the crisis,” Greenspan said.

Greenspan isn’t partly responsible.  As Fed Chair, he is wholely responsible.  This man’s “flawed thinking” (to be generous) resulted in the meltdown of our economy, and the loss of peoples’ homes, jobs, savings, retirements, and healthcare. Meanwhile the warm, comfy, elitist life of this son of a bitch goes on uninterrupted.  

Remember this chestnut,  Greenspan urges future Social Security cuts.  

May Greenspan’s Rolex be made in China…

Link:  MSNBC