Did the fed celebrate by raising rates they said they wouldn't?
Sour grapes. Greenspan wasn't perfect, but he was darn good.
Perhaps Bernanke will be the Harry Truman of the Federal Reserve.
Greenspan was just another politician dancing to the dictates of the syndicates that have bought the world political arena.
This editorial is misguided. The Federal Reserve is not in the business of stopping bubbles....they are natural in markets....The Fed. should keep inflation low and stable....the rest - from deficits to bubbles to slow or fast economic growth are in the hands of smart (and often times dumb) decision makers.
If these "bubble" people are so smart, all they have to do is heavily short the home builder stocks and make a fortune....but, they don't know if we are in a "bubble" or not.....only later, do these people look back at events and tell everyone how brilliant they were in predicting the popping of the "bubble"......but I rarely hear them talk about the fortune they made shorting the sectors that are "overgrown"....
There's only one thing that kills the Stock Market. Bad fed policy, and easy money Al will go down as one of the best at that. Raised rates 6 times in the late 90's screaming inflation, while we were in 3 year deflationary spiral. Three recessions, and a crippling market for 6 years. Great job Al.
Second of all, the proper role of a central banker is to control inflation. You don't want central bankers mucking around with interest rates and the money supply to prick "bubbles" real and imagined. To do so would be disasterous.
Don't read too much into this^^^^^^^^^.
Greenspan is has far smaller effects than legislation from congress e.g the Monetary Control Act 1980 that essentialy permitted us to bail out Mexico. This act also gave the federal resersve power beyond commerical banks to all depositary banks...leading to bailouts of and a policy that forces stronger banks to merge with unsound banks e.g Continental Illinois.
Legislation right before his era and durning it, has been incredibly unsound. Blaming one man out of a panel of twelve isn't wise...not review congress role is beyond reason.
Our era is increase of credit centralization, not 'deregulation' as most would like you to assume. There are no limits to central banking powers to inflate money and credit, and this power is meant almost always for political postures.
The end of gold brought a new era, one which induced banks to lend excessively to many latin american countries governments via Imf. Prior we lend 12 billion to latin countries, knowing the unstable and often backward policies of socialism. In the 80's we lent 250 billion. Ultimately Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, Argentian, Brazil, and Venezuela defaulted on many of their loans. We wrote off a record 22.2 billion dollars.
Congress has continually fortified a position that gives credence to evergrowing power to the federal reserve. They are the leaders [Congress] in which the federal reserve follows. Blame them first...blame them second, actually. Blame anyone that doesn't read into this first. Even yourself if you are one.
Realize that perhaps the lack of knowlege and fortitude of the Republican party with the banking system is a problem not to be blamed on a single man, but on a people and a party. Don't depend on the democrats to learn or read into banking, because they're too busy smoking weed.
ps..I can go on and on about bad legislation e.g anti-branching restrictions...but the point is the Republican party doesn't have real leaders (that I know of) whom focus on the important and true aspects of banking. Demand that of yourself, and of your leaders...or give into the obilivion of not knowing your supporting your own worst enemy: a bad idea.
Frankly we need a private education system in America, so kids stop growing up with the nonsense that Centralized banking policies are good....real debate needs to happen at a young age before people accept such riddled arguements.
Yes, the dot.com "era" was a massive bubble. But couple this alongside the Clinton's anti-BUSINESS legislations and propoganda, how to continue to perk the economy? It had to have been maddening inside the Fed Reserve, witnessing what the socialists were aiming at and towards.