Saturday, September 15, 2007

Alan Greenspan, a day late and a few trillion short, by gimleteye

Mr. Greenspan, from retirement, is throwing thunderbolts at George W. Bush for "politicizing" monetary and economic policies early in his administration. It's front page news in the New York Times today.

There was a party going on, and Mr. Greenspan wouldn't miss it. Today he says he underestimated the danger from the subprime mortgage industry. But in 2001, flush with pride that fiscal "conservatives" were in charge of the White House, Mr. Greenspan and Andrea Mitchell, his wife, appeared weekends on Miami Beach--hob nobbing with real estate speculators and celebrities just off Lincoln Road, where the housing bubble was inflating like mad.

From Miami it was clear then as it is clear now that the subprime mortgage fiasco would only be the leading edge of an economic mess that Greenspan and Bush made.

As readers of eyeonmiami.blogspot.com are aware (see archive: "housing crash"), the political origins of the housing boom and bust--now roiling world credit markets--was here in Florida, where production home builders, lobbyists, engineering companies and land speculators pushed Jeb and George W. Bush to high office.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Greenspan lost his reputation when he reversed his early opposition to Pres. Bush's first the tax cuts.