the government must help out the finance companies; they made a lot of stupid mistakes, and taxpayers should pay for them because alan creepspan said so. healthcare, on the other hand, is not affordable.

I think its interesting how Greenspan wants to reach out and let the public know how he feels now. How did he feel when he was in a position to advise the public on all the questionable loans the housing industry was making, sliding interest, etc? Why doesn't he just keep his mouth shut unless he has something constructive to say to get us out of the mess he helped nurture.

The categorical imperative strikes again.

Immanual Kant said an act is moral only if everyone can do it. It is the "bring enough chewing gum for everyone" rule.

Can you profit by stealing? Yes.
Can you profit if everyone steals? No, society will collapse.

Signing the change in the bankruptcy laws was Bush first act as President. It did offer both taking the house and garnishing the owners pay for life to pay the mortgage. Doubling your money. Anyone who studied philosophy knew it was immoral and would result in disaster.

This whole mess is a perfect example of what is truly wrong with America.

GREED

The money lenders loaned money to people they knew could not pay the loans. Why would they do this? Look back over the past few years of changes made by the rich protectionist. Bankruptcy laws were changed so that those who file bankruptcy can do so but they still have to pay back the money. Why is that important and what does that have to do with this current catastrophe? Easy, the banks loaned the money knowing that most of those they loaned to could not pay back the loan. They did this so that they could take the land and homes from these borrowers but on top of that these borrowers have to pay back the money because of the changes made to bankruptcy laws. The banks were looking to double their money. The only thing they didn't figure on was that the bottom of the housing market was fixing to fall out. Now they are stuck with a lot of homes and land but they can't get rid of them because no one is buying.

He played Henchman for the Reverse Robin Hoods on Wallstreet, cheering the mass exodus of American jobs and NOW his over-rated mind is trying to grapple with the fact that the un/under-employed can't make their house payments???

It's f*c%ing insane that America had to *re-learn* the lessons of the early 20th Century with regard to unchecked Capitalism.

We really are a stupid bunch.

He caused it following the orders of you know who. And people fell for the "booming economy"
lie by Bush. All they had to do is look around. And guess what, it will happen again and again because people pay no attention who they put in office and how they are represented.

Those familiar with Greenspeak know that Alan means lenders when he says home owners.

Greespan said there is an "overhang". a glut of housing. That is so classic, right out of Karl Marx.

. When the working class does not have enough money to buy something that desperately need, reactionary dickweeds call it a glut, and oversupply of goods. I guess there is a food "overhang" in Ethiopia, they eat so little.

There is plenty of demand for housing from "the homeless" for example and working poor renters.
Government needs to raise wage levels and provide more jobs. We need more low income housing.

Not housing in trailers. Not jobs killing Iraqis, either.

Putting a few predatory lenders in jail would not hurt.

ahhh so greenspan is trying like hell to 1)cleanse his soul for causing this mess and 2) to try and remain relivent.

like moron* he will go down in flames in history as a totally failed human being.

AG really needs to hush up.

A good book:

"The Creature from Jekyll Island : A Second Look at the Federal Reserve"

http://www.amazon.com/Creature-Jekyll-Island-Federal-Reserve/dp/0912986212/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197902239&sr=8-1

oh he's warning us all now? Now that it's too late and he sold America out AGAIN.

I think this creep needs go do some gardening and die a quiet death and STFU.

hasn't this creep done enough damage? why would anyone give him an audience when he got us in this mess to begin with?

Who told greeny there was a middle class?

It was real interesting that Greenspan said absolutely no to cutting taxes for the middle class but was fine with dumping cash in to bail out the avoidable housing disaster.

Considering how much Greenspan has to do with the current crisis it is unbelievable that he would have the nerve to open his mouth. Oh right, he's got a book to shill and his ugly mug will be all over our television screens for some time. He will spout his B.S. and no one will challenge anything he says. Did anyone else notice that George Stephanopoulos was so obsequieous on This Week that I kept expecting him to genuflect before speaking to this corrupt and dishonest old man? But then Stephanopoulos quit having any integrity quite some time ago. When it comes to a choice between having high profile, high paying positions and having integrity we know what these main stream media clowns choose.

Here's a suggestion, although it'll be too late to help people already hurt in the sub-prime mess: go back and look at the record of President Doofus, for the last 7 years, and undo every last thing he has done. That should go a long, long way toward solving everything that the federal government has done wrong since Clinton left office.

Problem here is the size of the problem.

When you see central banks around the world co-ordinating policy and "carpet bombing" the markets with liquidity ....

When you see a central bank suddenly dramatically reverse course within a matter of days (Mervyn King at the Bank of England) ....

When you see commercial banks agreeing to freeze rate increases on loans ...

When you see commercial banks creating a superfund to buy toxic waste assets ...

You can bet we are peering into the abyss of a financial meltdown of global proportions.

Pray that they don't screw this up 'cause you will get to live the pain.

(But no need to worry about those higher up on the food chain. While they might "feel" you pain, their own discomfort won't require more than a few tylenol).

Can't we ever get rid of these failures .... They keep reemerging like bloated corpses spuing vile odor and disease into the air.

Greenspan will go down as one of the worst , if not the worst Central Banker we have ever had and the reason is simple : His implicit and explicit proponence of deregulation.

By order, by Congressional testimony , by fiat Grreenspan has helped break the back of New Deal and subsequent Regulation that would have prevented or miniimized every one of the 6 major financial crises this country has faced over his tenure.

The currrent mortgage crisis would , indeed could never have been as bad had Greenspan implemented tighter loan underwriting standards that Congress had asked him to do in 1994. Ed Gramlich warned of this pending crisis early and Greenspan took no heed, defering to his banking cartel.

The heigth of cronyism and contempt for the public was his testimony in hearings about the 2005 Bankruptcy Bill where he accused people en masse of using bankruptcy as a dodge to financial responsibilty knowing full well that 90% off bankruptcies were due to job loss, divorce or health costs. He used the Bankruptcy Bill to backstop his reckless deregulated financial sop to his banking friends on the backs of the truly most disadvantaged class of debtor.

And now we have Greenspans' legacy , years of frustration, pain and loss in the housing sector and beyond.

There is no fix , but there is justice. People should be allowed to have their mortgages adjusted in bankruptcy court. Barney Frank has a bill for that but the banks want to bleed consumers for every last drop. And it is indeed time for a little justice .

Lets face it no one had a problem when the government came in and bailed out the savings and loans. No one had a problem when we changed bankruptcy laws to assure people couldn't get away with the family farm(really to make sure banks didn't get hit with losses) in tact. Although people really have a problem with an individual homeowner receiving a break. Sorry none of it will work. Incomes and job security simply aren't keeping up with spending habits. So get ready for more rate cuts, more credit card debt and a doomsday scenario that is only getting worse as the hole just keeps getting deeper and deeper.

Unless Allen Greenspan has ideas on how to create higher incomes for homeowners in need his suggestions will mean little more than a hill of beans.

Greenspan is an evil old bat. The lesson of the last 20 years is that the working class in the USA can be trampled on and not so much as wimper in protest. All that "growth" was just the result of becoming the world's bigger borrowers... when someone finally realizes how naked the emperor is, it's way too late.

Isn't stagflation already here? In order to keep the Gross Domestic Product number positive the government includes export sales and a building inventory. Inflation during the last 12 months is over 4% and my 3% wage increase is supposed to keep up?

Most of what is happening in the economy today is a direct result of the lingering effects of Fed policy during Greenspan's tenure and that will be the case for another 3-4 months when the impact of Bernanke's policies will take root.

"...government financial help for homeowners facing the mortgage crunch would be the best political fix for the economy..." - Greenspan

He's right. Homeowners are little capitalists. They have the same rights and privileges as the big Wall Street capitalists. The little capitalists homeowners don't "own" a home. They have an "investment." As with the big Wall Street capitalists the immutable laws of economics state an investment (no matter how stupid) must appreciate.

Snip. . . The current "distress" is the inability of the markets to function -- no matter what the Dow Jones Industrial Average appears to say at any given moment.

In other words Greenspan said,
" Steal more from the people, give it to the Banks,
and let the Fed continue to rob everyone blind."

I don't remember Paul Volcker pontificating about the state of the economy or offering suggestions to his successor at the Fed. Class acts are few and far between these days...