The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Greenspan Passes the Buck

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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.

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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??