Waxman to Greenspan: Were You Wrong?

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Thursday, October 23, 2008 at 12:09 pm

“Partially,” answered Alan Greenspan, the former oracle and maestro of the Federal Reserve between 1987-2006.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a great hearing yesterday on the role that the credit rating agencies played in the financial system’s meltdown. Today’s hearing on federal regulators on Wall Street has been more theater so far.

In a riveting exchange between Rep. Henry A. Waxman, (D-Calif.), chairman of the committee, and Greenspan, the former Fed chairman admitted that his anti-regulatory philosophy was flawed. In response to Waxman’s pointed questions, Greenspan said that his ideology had been correct for 40 years but that now he was in a “shocked state of disbelief that it has been proven wrong.”

During the testimony, Republicans on the committee, led by Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.),  put up a big sign reading “Nov. 20,” the day the committee will probe the collapse of  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“What comes before Nov. 20?” Mica asked no one in particular.

“Nov. 19,” someone from the audience shouted out.

“No, I was talking about the election,” Mica said.

During the oversight committee’s financial hearings, Mica has consistently tried to shift blame for the crisis onto Fannie and Freddie. Mica, um, is not telling the truth.

Comments

14 Comments

Bill
Comment posted October 23, 2008 @ 10:01 am

Greenspan thought deregulation would bring a self governess in the banking system. These greedy CEO’s were supposed to police each other, not con each other. Deregulation bought out the worst of Wall Street, and America was pillaged. This greed and neglect of self governess have bought on the worst financial storm that the world has ever faced. Once the dust settles, America should band together and bring on a class action suit against the actions of these CEO’s. According to Greenspan, “believed lending institutions would do a good job of protecting their shareholders” instead, they profited, jump ship and left the American tax payers holding the bag (i.e. http://www.BuyMyHouseBeforeTheBankTakesIt.com).


Gnarlodious
Comment posted October 23, 2008 @ 10:20 am

So “Liberal” essentially assumes that “We The People” are self-disciplined enough to not need a micromanaging authoritarian government to interfere in our personal decisions. Conservatives think “Liberal” is evil and can't work.

Likewise, “Neoliberal” essentially assumes that Big Business is restrained enough to not need an authoritarian regulatory government. Conservatives think “Neoliberal” is good and are willing to gamble the health of the nation on it.

Why is it that the inherent evil in humans is suddenly ignored when the pretend Big Business is a person? It don't add up.


elmanyon
Comment posted October 23, 2008 @ 10:25 am

Who do they think they are fooling? This was all by design.

Watch this video:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319…


Cryos
Comment posted October 23, 2008 @ 11:24 am

WHy don't you link an article to the huffington post for justification also. Fannie and Freddie were deeply at the root of the financial problems. Things like Credit Default Swaps just made the problem bigger than it should have been. If private banks did not adhere to CRA rules they would be penalized. How about you insert some VERY pertinent facts into your analysis.


Web Smith
Comment posted October 23, 2008 @ 12:00 pm

What Greenspan is saying is that the banks have backed themselves into a corner with derivatives and the population has been stripped of its wealth. Even though he knows this, he can't allow his train of thought to take the next logical step, which is, instead of giving the banks more money, give the money back to the population.

http://ewebsmith.com/Finance/therealproblem.html
http://ewebsmith.com/bus/taxpayers.html


Greg
Comment posted October 24, 2008 @ 3:54 am

You sound pretty far gone. I don't know if you can be helped. In a nutshell, nearly everything governments does, it does very poorly. The less government the better. Sure we need some, for our military, roads ect. but for the most part the less, the better!


Greg
Comment posted October 24, 2008 @ 10:54 am

You sound pretty far gone. I don't know if you can be helped. In a nutshell, nearly everything governments does, it does very poorly. The less government the better. Sure we need some, for our military, roads ect. but for the most part the less, the better!


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Pingback posted December 10, 2010 @ 10:17 pm

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[...] Wednesday’s hearing on credit rating agencies, Mica and other Republican committee members held up a sign reading “Nov. 20″ — a reference to the date of a hearing devoted to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Mica has even [...]


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