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Facts Demolish Greenspan Myth

By: Rick Ackerman, Rick's Picks


-- Posted Sunday, 13 April 2008 | Digg This ArticleDigg It! | Source: GoldSeek.com

Rick’s Picks

“Phenomenally accurate forecasts” 

We’ve dissed the news media at every opportunity because they failed so miserably to report on the problems that have caused the economy to implode. Newspapers like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times should have known better all along, but instead they served up the kind of drivel that reads like rewritten press releases from the Government and the Federal Reserve. Even now, reporters seem to be having trouble choking out the R-word, since the severe slowdown that has all but asphyxiated the economy is still not “official.”

“The ill-informed tout the liars,” is how Gary North characterizes this benighted relationship between politicians and the news media. Thus do we read, on the front page of the Journal last week, the results of a softball interview with the former Fed chairman in which he calls his critics “unfair.”  We have inferred that it is mainstream critics that he was referring to, but if he were to browse the archives of the subterranean newsletter world, his feelings would really be hurt.

An Embarrassment

We don’t think much of Mr. Greenspan ourselves, since it seems almost beyond dispute that the banking system’s dire troubles are largely attributable to the wantonly reckless monetary policies he pursued, and to his apparently egregious misunderstanding of basic economics. Will history see it that way?  There is that chance, since, with regard to the severity of this economic downturn, even if the mainstream media don’t yet “get it,” their not-yet-ready-for-prime-time counterparts in the newsletter business were gimlet-eyed all along. And while Mr. Greenspan’s serious professional shortcomings may not be searchable in the fawning coverage he received in New York Time et al., they are voluminously documented on the World Wide Web by legions of observers who saw it all coming.  As a result, far from being able to evade the judgment of history, the Fed chairman may find himself dead-to-rights before the tribunal of fact and opinion. And -- who knows? -- if his fellow economists eventually cop to the fact that he was an embarrassment to the profession, economics might begin to shed its reputation as the dismal science.

Patticake Interview

In the meantime, self-serving, patticake interviews like the one in the Journal are not likely to hurt his reputation much. Mr. Greenspan has been allotted quite a bit of space to explain why his policies were sound, the “banking mess” notwithstanding,” and nowhere in the article do we find any of the more ridiculous statements he made that revealed his brand of economics to be little more than make-it-up-as-you-go-along.  In particular, we recall his touting a “capital investment boom” in America at a time when household savings growth was negative. Far from investing, we were borrowing ourselves into a penurious future, diverting more than 70% of GDP toward consumption. “Easy Al” never saw it that way, of course; to the contrary, he explicitly characterized the sharp increase in home prices as “wealth.” Small wonder that he would have been so enthusiastic about adjustable rate mortgages, since they made it possible for those who could barely afford their homes to become “rich” merely by living in them.

Mr. Greenspan may indeed have been the “world’s most powerful banker,” as an obsequious and economically ignorant press so often described him. But if the economic crisis deepens beyond mere recession, and ever larger financial institutions fall, it will be as though a dangerously misinformed, third-rate dilettante had been at the helm of the global financial system when it tacked toward catastrophe that still looms.

***

Three Seats Left

There are just three seats left for the April 16-17 Hidden Pivot Seminar online. If you’ve wanted to take the class but have been unable to attend on weekend mornings, this one will be held over  two consecutive evenings – Wednesday and Thursday, April 16-17, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. MDT.  Click here, and then on the “Upcoming” tab to register; or here if you would like more information as well as a detailed description of the Hidden Pivot Method and a free Hidden Pivot calculator.

*** 

Information and commentary contained herein comes from sources believed to be reliable, but this cannot be guaranteed. Past performance should not be construed as an indicator of future results, so let the buyer beware. Rick's Picks does not provide investment advice to individuals, nor act as an investment advisor, nor individually advocate the purchase or sale of any security or investment. From time to time, its editor may hold positions in issues referred to in this service, and he may alter or augment them at any time. Investments recommended herein should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor, and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company. Rick's Picks reserves the right to use e-mail endorsements and/or profit claims from its subscribers for marketing purposes. All names will be kept anonymous and only subscribers’ initials will be used unless express written permission has been granted to the contrary. All Contents © 2008, Rick Ackerman. All Rights Reserved. www.rickackerman.com 


-- Posted Sunday, 13 April 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com




 



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