Greenspan Would Make Mentor Rand Proud

Washington Independent:

He can spin all he likes, but many are not buying former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's attempts to distance himself from the housing crisis -- and to make sure the Fed's laissez-faire economic practices don't take any blame either.

Greenspan, both his critics and his political allies note, is a political survivor who does what it takes to stay on top. So he's forcefully and publicly defending himself and his staunch anti-regulatory views, even as fingers point to his tenure at the Fed as the source for the housing mess.

"The Fed is Blameless on the Property Bubble," declared the headline of Greenspan's piece in Monday's Financial Times. He offered no apologies, and instead wrote, "Free competitive markets are the unrivalled way to organise (cq) economies." In a defensive interview in The Wall Street Journal Tuesday, Greenspan said he was speaking out to set the record straight and to make sure the wrong lesson - tighter regulation - wouldn't be the end result of the foreclosure crisis.

Read the whole story: Washington Independent

Comments

[avraamjack]

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This is just a classic example of "blame the guy who used to be here".
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[knosiswar]

Educate Yourself.

http://www.fdrs.org/banking_history.html

[cognate]

Nobody with half a brain who has read Ayn Rand would claim that she would support Alan Greenspan in his job as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

One of Rand's tenets is that government has no business running the economy or printing money. That is precisely what the FED has been trying to do since inception in 1913.

As Santayana said, those who don't know history are condemned to repeat it. Economic disaster is right around the corner. Better brush up on your potato farming, chicken feeding, goat milking skills.

[knosiswar]

You should bone up on your recent reality. The Fed is a privately incorporated and privately held corporation. The only 'Federal Employee' is the director who is an executive appointment. The FED is RAND'S WET DREAM. And the stupid War-Mongering Darwinist Neo-Cons are sold out on AYN RAND'S SYMPLISTIC IGNORANCE. The FED generates REVENUE in it's function of SUPPLYING MONEY TO THE US TREASURY.

[Wiredwilly]

cognate -
The headline should read " Greenspan Would Make Mentor Rand Puke ". Rand and Greenspan differ vastly on one point : Rand's heros like Howard Roark had unshakable integrity. Greenspan has none whatsoever. You seem confused. You state " one of Rand's tenets is that government has no business running the economy or printing money. That is precisely what the Fed has been trying to do since it's inception in 1913. " The Fed is NOT the Government and they have not been trying, they have been printing money since 1913. There they have been consistent with Rand's basic philosophy. They are a private Banking House printing the Nation's currency. What would make Rand puke is the fact that the Fed has been secretly CHARGING INTEREST on that money and POSING as the Government by declaring themselves a " public / private " bank, and in so doing resembling a con artist more than an struggling artist . Greenspan thinks because he advocates a ' free market" he advocates individual Freedom. What he is advocating is smoke and mirrors. The pseudo freedom to cheat and get away with it. The same " freedom" Howard Roark's nemesis Peter Keating enjoyed when he stole Roark's architectural plans and passed them off as his own. Thomas Jefferson, an opponent of any Central Bank was Howard Roark. Alan Greenspan is Peter Keating, an unscrupulous shyster using intellectual slight of hand as a smokescreen to rob people blind.

[WorkingClass]

I read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and was very impressed. WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL. Libertarianism finds its legitimacy in the writings of Thomas Jefferson, NOT Ayn Rand. I always thought Greenspan was just an unusually clever and successful Republican crook. Now it appears he may actually believe his own bull sh*t. The legendary Greenspan turns out to be a moron. I feel sick.

[bac]

Right. When I was in college, I too was so impressed with Ayn Rand. Now, not so much. Her philosophy is just selfish and hedonistic, a perfect cover for the all the moneygrubbing misanthropes around.

[Ajita]

Same here! I outgrew that selfish ideology when I began to empathize with people suffering in real life situations.

[VivaZapata]

thank god he's speaking out to set the record straight; however, the record will be judged by the results, not his blathering whine.

[GerryS]

good point-

[Ajita]

Ayn Rand's muddled philosophy is little understood by liberals, many of whom admire the strong language of libertarianism that underlies her writings. But to anyone who actually understands her ideas, the policies that she endorsed are morally reprehensible, resulting in the class-ridden society of today.
Rand had a twisted understanding of social darwinism that led her to decry the role of government in creating an equal playing field for those who did not have the means. While the poor were ignored as the casualties of progress, she endorsed a form of ruthless capitalism that the neo-cons, Bush, Cheney and Greenspan are identified with. Government , to these people, is nothing more than a tool to preserve their control over resources, while they bait the working class with ideas like freedom and liberty. Freedom from what? Wealth? Mission Accomplished. Is it not an individual right to have access to the basic amenities that our society can provide: Health care, food, shelter. All our ancestors contributed to building our society and yet somehow the Objectivist position is that only those who have opportunity from birth can enjoy the fruits of human endeavor.
Capitalism is good when it represents the ideals that our founding fathers envisioned: Equal access to the race is all we're asking for. Greenspan will go down in history as the architect of the greatest discrepancy of wealth in American history.

[VivaZapata]

dear ajita,
all good points, but i would like to add that in addition to the selfish premiss goes the disgraceful wastefulness of the earth's resources. who determines, and on what basis does any one get to determine, the exploitation of the earth's treasures for lavish use?

[Ajita]

Couldn't agree with you more VivaZapata.

[GerryS]

Who WAS John Galt?

[Ramirez]

A character in Atlas Shrugged.

[WIpatriot]

Brilliant.

[NelsonR]

A man takes responsibilities for his action. A coward passes the buck unlike Harry S. Truman.
Greenspan started this fiasco with continued low interest rates and blissful ignorance of what was occurring on his watch. Alan YOU WILL go down in history as the man who began the demise of America regardless of the continued inane arguments you can attempt to pass off.