Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was a market manipulator of first order. His career evidences the major problems associated with financial high priests.Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was a market manipulator of first... more
U.S. regulators should consider breaking up large financial institutions considered “too big to fail,” former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said.
Those banks have an implicit subsidy allowing them to borrow at lower cost because lenders believe the government will always step in to guarantee their obligations. That squeezes out competition and creates a danger to the financial system, Greenspan told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
“If they’re too big to fail, they’re too big,” Greenspan said today. “In 1911 we broke up Standard Oil -- so what happened? The individual parts became more valuable than the whole. Maybe that’s what we need to do.”
At one point, no bank was considered too big to fail, Greenspan said. That changed after the Treasury Department under then-Secretary Hank Paulson effectively nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Treasury and Fed bailed out Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc.
“It’s going to be very difficult to repair their credibility on that because when push came to shove, they didn’t stand up,” Greenspan said.
more at link...U.S. regulators should consider breaking up large financial institutions considered... more
Just when you think those that run our country have experience to do a good job, to provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare, along comes the status quo-which happens to be greed and money and power.
Nobody can overturn the money changers tables alone. Well Jesus did.
If we don't pay attention to the warnings and the warners....
October 20th, 2009 on Frontline is a chance to learn about how we got in this financial crisis. Just maybe then we can do something to avert it from happening again, if we can get experienced, conscious and conscience Americans to provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare of our country.Just when you think those that run our country have experience to do a good job, to... more
Jeffrey Sachs, a prolific economist, author and professor at Columbia University, had unusually harsh words in a speech today at the World Business Forum directed at Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve — placing him with much of the blame for the current financial crisis. (Find more World Business Forum coverage here)
“The essence of the current downturn is finance,” Mr. Sachs said. “It’s a Wall Street crisis. A crisis made down the block.” He said, and “if you look under the rubble you can figure out what happened and why.”
First, “a long bout of easy credit championed by Alan Greenspan and the Fed outside of the normal boundaries of monetary policy,” which came together with “a nearly complete deregulation of the financial sector contrary to almost everything we know about the risks of a highly leveraged financial system.”
“This is flagrant irresponsibility,” he said. “This isn’t a matter of one’s market philosophy, just profound irresponsibility.” Later, though, he said Mr. Greenspan’s ideology was possibly at fault, given his “Ayn Rand” philosophy that markets take care of themselves “until he discovered the flaw of his theory later.”
Mr. Sachs also spoke harshly of the Clinton and Bush administrations. “We arrived at this cliff through the aggressively irresponsibility of two U.S. administrations in a row,” he said, accusing them of bending to the will of the nation’s biggest lobbying group — the financial industry.
“Where were the regulators? Consciously and deliberately kept out of the scene,” he said. “This led to a bubble financially that was most notable in the housing sector…and Alan Greenspan added fuel to the fire by keeping interest rates around 1%” from 2002 through early 2005.
“You get credit for stopping a Depression but I don’t want to give too much credit because the people who stopped it were the people who started it also,” said Mr. Sachs.Jeffrey Sachs, a prolific economist, author and professor at Columbia University, had... more
In his Saturday radio address, President Obama acknowledged the White House is exploring "additional options to promote job creation." It's about time. This is the worst job market in 70 years -- including the longest duration of steep job losses.
What should be done about unemployment?
If anyone had any doubt that something far more dramatic must be done, listen to former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. He warned Sunday against further stimulus because "we are in a recovery, and I think it would be a mistake to say the September numbers alter that significantly." Greenspan has turned into an inverse soothsayer. After his cataclysmic error about where the economy was headed before the meltdown, his views about the future should be carefully noted as being the exact opposite of what's likely to be in store.
The economy may be in a technical recovery, but this is not a real recovery, and the "green shoots" or "positive signs" that Wall Street cheerleaders love to shout about are phantoms of their ever-optimistic imaginations. The stimulus is working but it is far from adequate. Before the stimulus, we were losing more than 500,000 jobs a month. Now that 40 percent of the stimulus has been spent, we are losing more than 250,000 jobs a month.
What to do? With the debt ceiling approaching and the gravitational pull of the 2010 elections increasing, the White House can't go back to Congress with a formal bill to enlarge the stimulus package. Four simpler moves would be to:In his Saturday radio address, President Obama acknowledged the White House is... more
Alan Greenspan assassinated Capitalism. Have we regulated Cronyism and Corruption to reinstate True Capitalism? Top Banking Analyst Chris Whalen shares from the inside ...Alan Greenspan assassinated Capitalism. Have we regulated Cronyism and Corruption to... more
An editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal brings home a fact that I’ve known for a long time: Economists tend to be schizophrenic.
The article mentions Larry Summers’s double talk. Summers commented on Obama’s latest budget by saying, “There are no, no tax increases….” The article points out that there are tax increases, namely the death tax that will be returning to its 2009 parameters, instead of disappearing as it was scheduled to do in 2011. That wouldn’t be more than a fib, but the story gets worse.
In 1980, Summers co-authored a study at the National Bureau of Economic Research supporting the elimination of the estate tax.
Go figure. Schizophrenia, anyone?An editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal brings home a fact that I’ve known for... more
While the economy continues to decline the number of government officials, financial experts and other interested persons who are willing to articulate just how bad things are going seems to be on the rise. Add to that list Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan who defined the current economic situation as a "once-in-a-century credit tsunami." Greenspan was the Chairman of the Federal Reserve for over 18 years until being succeeded by the current Chairman, Ben Bernanke, in 2006.While the economy continues to decline the number of government officials, financial... more
The billionaire's best friend: Alan Greenspan, the "monetary policy genius" who was in charge of the Federal Reserve Bank for over twenty years, justifies his anti-social policies in 2005 ...
and expresses his surprise at their outcome in 2008. The billionaire's best friend: Alan Greenspan, the "monetary policy genius" who was... more
For years liberals, conservatives, independents, DC, Main Street and Wall Street seemingly defied all normality and not only embraced, but nearly worshipped the same individual, Alan Greenspan. After rising in 1987 to the position of Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the most powerful financial position in the world, he presided over the most sustained period of economic growth in the history of America. He rode the wave of private sector technological achievements that created abnormally high productivity growth. To many it was his greatness that brought about the increase in income, increase in homeownership, increase in credit, increase in all things material — while still maintaining price stability.For years liberals, conservatives, independents, DC, Main Street and Wall Street... more
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said today that he was wrong to think, as AP puts it, "free markets could regulate themselves without government oversight." Greenspan was testifying in front of the House Committee of Government Oversight, when he declared, "I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms," and said his free-market ideology was flawed-- "I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact... I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.”
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Woops.Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said today that he was wrong to think,... more
"The former Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, has conceded that the global financial crisis has exposed a "mistake" in the free market ideology which guided his 18-year stewardship of US monetary policy.
A long-time cheerleader for deregulation, Greenspan admitted to a congressional committee yesterday that he had been "partially wrong" in his hands-off approach towards the banking industry and that the credit crunch had left him in a state of shocked disbelief. "I have found a flaw," said Greenspan, referring to his economic philosophy. "I don't know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact."
It was the first time the man hailed for masterminding the world's longest postwar boom has accepted any culpability for the crisis that has engulfed the global banking system.
During a feisty exchange on Capitol Hill, he told the House oversight committee that he regretted his opposition to regulatory curbs on certain types of financial derivatives which have left banks on Wall Street and in the Square Mile facing billions of dollars worth of liabilities.
"I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organisations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms," said Greenspan.
His remarks came as Lord Myners, the newly appointed City minister, told the Guardian that a new agency was planned to oversee the UK government's £37bn share of high street banks.
As the crisis continued to depress global stockmarkets, the US treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, also offered a partial confession, admitting he ought to have anticipated a meltdown in the US mortgage industry widely blamed for triggering the crisis. "I could have seen the sub-prime crisis coming earlier," he told the New York Times. He added: "I'm not saying I would have done anything differently.""The former Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, has conceded that the global... more
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says the current financial crisis is a ``once-in-a-century credit tsunami'' which will have a severe impact on the U.S. economy, driving unemployment higher.Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says the current financial crisis is a... more
Bill Moyers interviews former Nixon White House strategist and political and economic critic Kevin Phillips, who gives a ground-level perspective on the mess we're in the middle of. Phillips rips into Bush, shakes his head at Greenspan and doesn't give the democrats much in the way of props either.
Though I am no finance major, this was a fascinating, frank and somewhat frightening discussion.Bill Moyers interviews former Nixon White House strategist and political and economic... more
Dow drops more than 500 points or 4.5 % as investors panic after Lehman Brothers files for chapter 11.
US stocks were slammed on Monday after a stunning upheaval on the Wall Street landscape. The Dow Jones fell more than 504 points or 4.42 percent, the largest one-day drop since September 2001. This as investors reacted badly to a shake-up of the financial industry that took out two storied names: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. Lehman Brothers, which had 60 billion US dollars in soured real-estate holdings, filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in court after attempts to rescue the 158-year-old firm failed. Employees started to clean out their offices in New York on Sunday night. About 26000 Lehman Brothers employees lost their jobs worldwide. Another Wall St. icon Merrill Lynch was snapped up by Bank of America in a 50 billion dollar all-stock transaction in what was essentially a forced sale. Merrill Lynch was said to have 80-plus billion dollars of risky asset exposures. The disappearance of the two firms could mean the loss of up to 50,000 jobs in the financial sector. That industry has already lost 100,000 jobs since the start of the credit crisis a little more than a year ago.
Doug Henwood is the founder and editor of the Left Business Observer.Dow drops more than 500 points or 4.5 % as investors panic after Lehman Brothers files... more
Neither Honest Nor Trustworthy: The 10 Worst Corporations of 2007
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
The U.S. public holds Big Business in shockingly low regard.
A November 2007 Harris poll found that less than 15 percent of the population believes each of the following industries to be "generally honest and trustworthy:" tobacco companies (3 percent); oil companies (3 percent); managed care companies such as HMOs (5 percent); health insurance companies (7 percent); telephone companies (10 percent); life insurance companies (10 percent); online retailers (10 percent); pharmaceutical and drug companies (11 percent); car manufacturers (11 percent); airlines (11 percent); packaged food companies (12 percent); electric and gas utilities (15 percent). Only 32 percent of adults said they trusted the best-rated industry about which Harris surveyed, supermarkets.
With the 10 Worst Corporations of 2007, we aim to show - again - that Big Business is out of control and to connect comparable abuses to the failure of government overseers, regulators and enforcers.
Crude oil is $132. Corn is $6.The cost of everything is rising. Inflation is worsening, and it’s not hard to understand why. M3, the total quantity of dollars, is now growing by 17% per annum. Weimar inflation has arrived in America.
The Federal Reserve is following the footsteps of the central bank in Weimar Germany. It is the same path taken by many central banks that have issued countless fiat currencies based on nothing but government promises. It is the path to the fiat currency graveyard, and the once almighty US dollar – which long ago used to be “as good as gold”, just like the Reichsmark once held that same exalted title – is knocking at the graveyard’s gate.
James Turk is the Founder & Chairman of GoldMoney.com http://goldmoney.com/ . He is the co-author of The Coming Collapse of the Dollar, which has been updated for a newly released paperback version, now entitled The Collapse of the Dollar http://www.dollarcollapse.com .
Photo from Bernd Widdig's book “Culture and Inflation in Weimar Germany.”
Reprinted at www.kitco.comBy James Turk
(Excerpt from main article)
Crude oil is $132. Corn is $6.The cost... more
"Those unfamiliar with marketplace dynamics may not recognize how government activity has created price distortions across our economy. But when these chains fail to restrain the market, the underlying forces become easier to see."
~Peter Schiff, President of Europacific Capital and author of Crashproof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse
Excerpt from "Why Not Let the Markets Set Prices?", 4/25/2008 http://www.europac.net
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In his latest weekly commentary, Peter Schiff explains how the U.S. government's and the Federal Reserve's manipulation of the markets has had a detrimental effect on the economy. He specifically points out how they have contributed to the subprime mortgage mess, the food and energy crisis and "pushed college tuitions up to the stratosphere." "Those unfamiliar with marketplace dynamics may not recognize how government activity... more
Ross Healy, the CEO of Strategic Analysis Corporation, provides insight into the subprime mortgage crises and puts the spotlight on former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Ross Healy, the CEO of Strategic Analysis Corporation, provides insight into the... more
