How Dumb Does Alan Greenspan Think We Are? Very

[marmar]

from HuffPost:


David Fiderer
Posted March 11, 2009 | 08:00 PM (EST)
How Dumb Does Alan Greenspan Think We Are? Very


"Don't blame me," argues Alan Greenspan in a piece of historical revisionism that would have embarrassed Kurt Waldheim. Greenspan offered up a Panglossian analysis in today's Wall Street Journal that goes something like this:

The rise in housing prices was tied to the decline in the rates for long-term, fixed-rate mortgages. Historically there has been a strong historic correlation between the fed-funds rate and rates for long-term, fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs). "Between 2002 and 2005, however, the correlation diminished to insignificance," writes Greenspan. There was no correlation, ergo the Federal Reserve did not inflate the housing bubble.

Here's the truth.

In the years following the end of the last recession, which ended in November 2001, Greenspan lowered rates relentlessly in order to prime the economy for the 2004 election. By mid-2003, the fed funds rate was one percent, a 45-year low. Mortgage rates for both FRMs and adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) fell dramatically, but rates on ARMs fell more. And this is a critical point, by early 2004 the rate difference between FRMs and ARMs was two percent, the highest it had been in 10 years. In other words, if you had a $120,000 mortgage, your monthly payments would have been $200 less under an ARM. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-fiderer/how-dumb-does-alan-greens_b_174122.html

[Mike 03]

1. Excellent fucking post.

He thinks we are dumb.

And as smart as he may be in many respects, he was a huge fuckup in others. And he ought to just admit it.

Kick and RECCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCcc.

[Double T]

2. Alan Greenspan wasn't and isn't so smart. A certified idiot could this........

economic disaster coming at least a decade ago. This 'don't blame me stuff' shows that he is dumber than an idiot. Greenspan is another wall street shilling total failure that should be wearing an orange jumpsuit.

[YOY]

4. When I was in business school a few profs painted him as some sort of fucking genious like Buffet.

A few others were skeptic but moreover silent about it. I knew why.

I thought the idea of a retail economy was madness in and of itself...let alone trickle down. AND THEY ALL KNEW TRICKLE DOWN WAS DOMESTICALLY BULLSHIT.

[spindrifter]

3. His is that attitude, "if they're so smart, how come they

ain't rich..."

[notesdev]

5. We haven't executed him yet

so... he's still in the 'getting away with it' camp for now.

My sig line should remind anyone who doubts of his willful economic terrorism. I call it treason.

[struggle4progress]

6. Greenspan was an ideologue with no intellectual integrity. He followed Ayn Rand without

asking questions himself. His responses, to whatever questions anyone else asked him, were always mere blather

It's an old game: the snake-oil saleman babbles some fiddle-faddle, and his shills work to persuade the crowd that the crowd just isn't smart enough to understand what's being said. It's always worked for the Ponzi schemers. It worked briefly for Enron, before Enron crashed and burned. It worked for Greenspan for decades: he uttered cryptic bullshit, snickering up his sleeve that the suckers bought it, and then retreated from public view, convinced by his ideology that he had no obligation to try to understand anything or to do anything. In the face of a real crisis, he had nothing to offer

What else is there to say?

[Syrinx]

7. here's another example of either his stupidity...

Or that he thinks we are all stupid. I posted this nearly two years ago.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x433736

[acmavm]

8. Well, did anyone expect anything different? The entire bunch of thugs who

screwed everything up for the last 8 years are all claiming it either wasn't their fault or it wasn't 'illegal' (whatever it was they got caught at).

Well, why shouldn't they? We let liars kill maybe a million people while trying to steal their oil fields. If we accept that (which apparently it looks like this admin wants to do), why wouldn't we accept the much lesser crimes of fraud and grand larceny? They pale in comparison to the blood that's been spilled.

[Golden Raisin]

9. For decades Greenspan

was the high muckety-muck, Pontifex Maximus of things Financial and now it turns out his readings of the entrails were all wrong. Devestatingly wrong. Instead of taking it like a man or quietly fading away he's launched a whiny, weasely PR campaign in an attempt to salvage his severely tarnished name and reputation. There's a special ring in Inferno waiting for him.

[wackywaggin]

10. Greasspunk was all wrong!!

If only I could go back and argue my points with the ecomomics professors at the university. How wrong they all were!!