Words of Wisdom from Alan Greenspan
Last week I saw an interesting interview with Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, on The Today Show. He has a new book out, and thus appears to be making the rounds in support of its release. While I can’t cover everything he said in painstaking detail, I did jot down a few of the more interesting tidbits…
» He claims that his biggest frustration was President Bush’s “unwillingness to wield his veto against out of control spending.” He thought that the structure of the Bush tax cut was fine, but also felt that it needed to be paid for.
» He doesn’t accept any blame for the not foreseeing the problems with the housing bubble in the United States – he claims they tried to get mortgage rates up, but failed. He further claims that all 20-30 other countries have the same problem because the low interest rates were caused by “global forces” (i.e., a sharp decline in long term interest rates).
» He thinks oil would be in the $130-$140 per barrel range if we hadn’t gone to war in Iraq: “The way I read Saddam, that’s where he was going.”
» Does he have any thoughts for new homebuyers? Yep… He’s “worried” about the current credit crunch. He further stated that “we’re going to have to go through this adjustment” just as other countries that have been experiencing a housing bubble will have to do. He further recognized that a lot of people will have “very tragic stories.”
» Finally, does he think we’re headed for a recession? Not yet. There are some open questions, but for the moment “we’re doing okay.”
For more info, check out “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World.”
Disclaimer: Discover is a paid advertiser of this site.
Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information. See the Discover online credit card application for full terms and conditions on offers and rewards.
Filed under: Economy, Mortgages, Real Estate, Taxes
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
Related articles...
» Greenspan Speaks: U.S. Economy in a Recession» Bernanke Tabbed as Greenspan’s Replacement
» From the Archives (September 21st – September 27th)
» Hotties Make the Big Bucks
» Carnivals – Week of 05/29/06
» Appeal Your Health Insurance Denials
» From the Archives (May 27th – June 2nd)
» How to Make Money in the Stock Market
Was this article useful? Please sign up to receive our content via e-mail:
4 Responses to “Words of Wisdom from Alan Greenspan”
Leave a Reply
Top Cards by Category
Earn 100 Reward Dollars after you make $1,000 in purchases in the first three months of Cardmembership.
Bonus Miles: Earn 30,000 bonus miles toward Award Travel after you spend $500 on the Card within the first three months of Cardmembership. Earn As You Spend: Get 2X miles on Delta purchases and 1X miles for all other eligible dollars spent.
Consumer friendly credit card with a great low rate of 7.25% and save on interest charges. No balance transfer fees and no annual fee.
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
Consumer friendly credit card with a great low rate of 7.25% and save on interest charges. No balance transfer fees and no annual fee.
Limited Time Offer: Get 25,000 Membership Rewards(R) points after you spend $5,000 in the first three months of Card membership. Enroll and select a qualifying airline to receive up to $200 annually in statement credits for incidental fees, such as checked bags and in-flight refreshments, charged by the airline.
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
- How to Become a Millionaire
- How to Get Out of Debt
- The Best Dollars I've Ever Spent
- How Our Estate Plan is Structured
- How We Paid Our Mortgage In Less than 10 Years
- Money Making Ideas
- How to Manage Your Asset Allocation with Multiple Accounts
- Consumption Smoothing - Save While the Saving's Good
- How to Save on Groceries
- How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
- Eleven Great Books About Money
- Dave Ramsey is Bad at Math
- Dish Network Customer Service SUCKS
- $8,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Pay Off Mortgage Early or Invest?
- How to Claim the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Termite Control: Sentricon vs. Termidor
- How Much Should You Pay a Babysitter?
- Ethanol Blended Gas = Lower Mileage?
- Reduced Credit Limits? Share Your Experience
- $15,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Will Mac OS X Lion Kill Quicken 2007?
- Buying Furniture off the Back of a Truck
How to save money on insurance
- Working longer: Fallback or fallacy?
- More money, more happiness: Do you think money can buy happiness?
- Overdraft fees soared to $32 billion in 2012
- How do you combat prom inflation?
- How should you choose a bank? Look in the mirror.
- The cost of clean water
- College debt 101
- Is it possible to live debt free?
- How to prepare for a home appraisal
- Home prices are up: good news or bad?
September 24th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Greenspan certainly has been making the rounds. I understand he is doing this for PR right now, but I certainly hope he lets Bernanke do his job after this instead of constantly weighing in on monetary policy.
September 25th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
I agree with Aaron. It is so easy to judge from the outside when you don’t have the responsibility of what Ben Bernanke has to deal with. Greenspan is just making matters worst by offering his “advice” about everything.
On an off topic note, I saw the CNBC interview with Maria Bartraromo (i can’t spell her last name) and she was crying on parts of the segment. They must have cut the parts when she totally broke down but i wonder why!
September 25th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I used to like Greenspan a lot. He’s a likable guy and the press loves him. Maybe he wasn’t bad, but I do put a lot of the blame on him for the credit bubble.
I don’t understand how he can claim to not have a role. During his stay the fed held interest rates pretty low, fueling a buy and debt mentality over being fiscally responsible.
Would the tech crash of 2000 be worse if he didn’t? Yes, but the current crisis is a direct results of his solution.
Just my opinion of course.
September 28th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Thanks for sharing some excerpts. I need a good book to read I will have to check this out.