Did anyone else watch Alan Greenspan on 60 Minutes last night? The guy can’t resist a blonde. Leslie Stahl exposed an interesting fact: that Greenspan’s star rose when Clinton was president and we had 8 years of unprecedented peace and prosperity. Coincidence? Greenspan himself admitted that of all the presidents with whom he has served, Clinton was the most intelligent. Does anybody really believe that Greenspan was responsible for the economic success of the Clinton years? If that were the case, why were those years bracketed by such lackluster performance? I think the Clinton team’s brains made Greenspan look good, not the other way around.
Greenspan was publicly humiliated by GHWBush, which may account for him letting junior go ahead and wreck the economy. Mabe he even egged him on a little bit. There was a lot Greenspan could have said and done to discourage the abusive lending practices that are now crashing the housing markets and dragging us toward a deep recession. He also encouraged Bush’s tax cut manias and kept interest rates so low that there was no incentive to save, only to borrow. Greenspan is a schmuck. He got all shirty with Leslie when she asked him if he shouldn’t keep his mouth shut now that he’s out of government – like he did when he was in government. Oh, no, he declaimed! That would be preventing him from engaging in his profession! Hey, Alan, when you were working for me and my fellow citizens the last few years, you weren’t telling me what I needed to know. How come your wealthy clients are willing to trust your advice now? If I were them, I’d go look for some of Bill Clinton’s old financial advisors and ask them for advice.
He won’t tell the American public what he invests his own money in, but he’ll go on the record as saying we’re going to have a recession and some very difficult times ahead. Gee, thanks Alan.
And for sheer chutzpah, it would be hard to beat his chortling over how he would obfuscate the facts whenever he was called before the Congress to testify. Meshugenah bastard.