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Greenspan Passes the Buck

Writing in the WSJ, Alan Greenspan argues that the Fed did not cause the housing bubble because the historically low mortgage rates that triggered the boom were not a result of Fed rate cuts, but of changes in the global economy. It’s worth noting that during the height of the housing boom, Greenspan denied that a national housing bubble was possible. Here’s what he had to say at an October 19, 2004  speech at America’s Community Banker’s Annual Convention:

Overall, while local economies may experience significant speculative price imbalances, a national severe price distortion seems most unlikely in the United States, given its size and diversity.

View all comments (10) |

Pingback| 3.11.09 @ 11:00AM

Greenspan Passes the Buck — But As For Me links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

Greenspan Passes the Buck — But As For Me .addtoany_share_save

ruth| 3.11.09 @ 1:38PM

What else did you expect from Andrea Mitchell's husband? Did you really expect him to 'man up'?

ECM| 3.11.09 @ 5:27PM

Alan 'Mo Money' Greenspan attempts to absolve himself of a huge percentage of the blame and, thanks to our 'blame the banks/Wall St./anybody but us' politicians, he's well on his way to getting off scott free.

Willey| 3.11.09 @ 8:35PM

I'd love to see Barney frogmarched to jail.

dad29 | 3.11.09 @ 9:09PM

"Easy Al" maintains that it was worldwide low interest rates which created the housing bubble.

OK. But as we know, the price of a commodity is directly related to its availability. So my question to "Easy Al": where did all that money COME from, which drove down the price of the money?

Al?? Al??

Pingback| 3.14.09 @ 9:55AM

‘WEEKEND OPINIONATOR: THE MAGI OF THE MELTDOWN’. GREAT RECAP OF THE WEEK IN FINANCE. links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…free flowing, many abused it and did stupid things but it was Greenspan and Co that brought the excess credit (booze) to the party. “It’s worth noting that  during the height of the housing boom, Greenspan denied that a national housing bubble was possible,” adds Philip Klein at AmSpecBlog. “Here’s what he had to say at an October 19, 2004, speech at America’s Community Banker’s Annual Convention: ‘Overall, while…

More Blog Posts by Philip Klein

http://spectator.org/blog/2009/03/11/greenspan-passes-the-buck

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