How Alan Greenspan Destroyed America


The Guardian / By Dean Baker

The former Fed chair is promoting his new book. He should admit his role in the housing crisis, not insult our intelligence.
October 28, 2013 |


Alan Greenspan will go down in history as the person most responsible for the enormous economic damage caused by the housing bubble and the subsequent collapse of the market. The United States is still down almost 9m jobs from its trend path. We are losing close to $1tn a year in potential output, with cumulative losses to date approaching $5tn.

These numbers correspond to millions of dreams ruined. Families who struggled to save enough to buy a home lost it when house prices plunged or they lost their jobs. Many older workers lose their job with little hope of ever finding another one, even though they are ill-prepared for retirement; young people getting out of school are facing the worst job market since the Great Depression, while buried in student loan debt.

The horror story could have easily been prevented had there been intelligent life at the Federal Reserve Board in the years when the housing bubble was growing to ever more dangerous proportions (2002-2006). But the Fed did nothing to curb the bubble. Arguably, it even acted to foster its growth with Greenspan cheering the development of exotic mortgages and completely ignoring its regulatory responsibilities.

How Alan Greenspan Destroyed America | Alternet
Alan Greenspan is just a puppet who carried out his master's order. The real mastermind is the Feds. (FBI) They hold large quantity of houses in my case and need a low interest rate to maintain the value of this property. So though Greenspan is not on the seat, Bernanky or his follower will still keep the interest rate low. That's why you saw they keep the QE programme on and continue to print money.