Posted on 10/24/2008 3:05:20 AM PDT by Born Conservative
Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said on Thursday the credit crisis had exceeded anything he had imagined and admitted he was wrong to think that banks would protect themselves from financial market chaos.
“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interest of organisations, specifically banks and others, was such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders,” he said.
In the second of two days of tense hearings on Capitol Hill, Henry Waxman, chairman of the House of Representatives, clashed with current and former regulators and with Republicans on his own committee over blame for the financial crisis.
Mr Waxman said Mr Greenspan’s Federal Reserve – along with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Treasury – had propagated “the prevailing attitude in Washington... that the market always knows best.”
Mr Waxman blamed the Fed for failing to curb aggressive lending practices, the SEC for allowing credit rating agencies to operate under lax standards and the Treasury for opposing “responsible oversight” of financial derivatives.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
Waxman speaking on the economy is like a three year old trying to teach a class in advanced physics.
Greenspan knows darn well — the mistake was LACK of freedom. The mistake was Third Way socialism, pressuring banks to accept risky loans. The mistake was giving ACORN tax payer money to harass banks into taking even greater risks.
The Timeline Project / Link List of Bailout History
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2093845/posts
Greenspan is a liar, providing cover for the ratts. They’re the reason for the meltdown:
The Timeline Project / Link List of Bailout History
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2093845/posts
OH PLEASE!!! The greatest economic carnage occurs since the Great Depression and you give him credit for admitting "a mistake"... ?@! What on earth else could he say?! He gets no credit.
I remember over the past several years people here at FR predicting this economic mess and claiming Greenspan was right in the middle of it. There were many who would disagree and I was not sure what to believe.
Greenspan was always hailed as the greatest in the MSM but once again the smart people on this forum are proved to be right.
Just like the Dot.com fraud
His economy was built on fraud loans to people
Kinda like the Democratic new voters and Obama 200 and under donors.
listen to the market. Not ‘smart’ guys who think they can beat it. The market was telling us, through the price of gold, that the maestro was creating way too much $. He didn’t listen and you get what you’d expect from a Soviet style command economy.
Agreed. "Sorry" is way past the laughable level, and well into the infuriating zone. As for payback, even if I survive them, there simply isn't enough beer or time for my kidneys to process it. Greenspan, Paulson, Dodd, Frank, every SOB who enabled ACORN...
Mr. niteowl77
C'mon Greenspan, which is it? You don't get two.
I have businesses in several industries, that I try to influence to take a hard stand and say no. That's a big challenge because messing with the government will ruin your credit. We need a corporate strike in America where businesses just refuse to pay taxes until we are guaranteed rights by the government that secure our longevity.
Business owners are responsible for their employees and their families. If it comes to paying my people, or paying taxes and fees, sorry but my people come first, but I shouldn't go to jail for that decision.
When economics is your bread and butter, and it is your job to know the inner workings of the economy, with reams of data available to you that is not available to regular folks, and you are in charge for 20 years,there is no way in effing hell Greenspan did not know what the hell was going on.
Anyone else catch the Schnozz telling Greenspan “you were wrong” as if he was pronouncing judgement from on high, on C-Span yesterday?
And quite frankly, Greenspan is not the head of the Fed anymore, so who cares what he has to say now? Did anyone think Andrea Mitchell’s husband is going to say anything that would indict Democrats for their obvious role in this massive fraud on the American people?
That’s almost as ludicrous as believing that Republican Senators and Congressmen, acting in their own interest if not the interest of the nation, would call for investigations and resignations of Dodd, Schumer, Frank and others due to their pivotal roles in this financial debacle!
The silence is deafening. And no dogs are barking, either.
Philosophical shifts you are referring to, are not revolutions, as the establishment remains the same as always. As the spectre of extreme socialism is upon us, I have been thinking of my role as an American more than ever. It is unAmerican to accept this drastic change in society, brought about by uneducated masses. We need to change our government, and limit its powers. A national referendum might work, setting new rules for the Fed via a Constitutional amendment
First you say drastic change is unAmerican, then you advocate drastic change.
don’t even get me started on your “uneducated masses” statement.
THE LIBERY AMENDMENT
www.libertyamendment.com
Liberty, freedom and sovereignty restored to all Americans
Individual liberty, freedom and sovereignty of the people will be restored in a representative republican form of government by clarifying the original spirit and intent of the Constitution. The Liberty Amendment will give back to the Constitution its full force and effect in limiting the powers and activities of the Federal Government and restoring those powers reserved to the States and to the people. The Liberty Amendment, proposed, could become the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.
TEXT of the proposed Liberty Amendment
Section 1. The Government of the United States shall not engage in any business, professional, commercial, financial or industrial enterprise except as specified in the Constitution.
Section 2. The constitution or laws of any State, or the laws of the United States shall not be subject to the terms of any foreign or domestic agreement which would abrogate this amendment.
Section 3. The activities of the United States Government which violate the intent and purpose of this amendment shall, within a period of three years from the date of the ratification of this amendment, be liquidated and the properties and facilities affected shall be sold.
Section 4. Three years after the ratification of this amendment the sixteenth article of amendments to the Constitution of the United States shall stand repealed and thereafter Congress shall not levy taxes on personal incomes, estates, and/or gifts.
The Liberty Amendment states that the Federal Government shall not operate business-type activities unless they are specifically authorized by the Constitution.
It provides a three-year period for selling or liquidating more than 900 agencies and business-type enterprises presently operated by the Federal Government without constitutional authority. Sale of these enterprises will bring in enough money to substantially reduce the national debt. Annual budget spending by the government could be reduced by more than fifty percent. Revenue from excise taxes on goods and services, and on corporation incomes, will increase at least twenty percent, without increase of tax rates.
This means that the annual revenue collected from the Federal Personal Income and Withholding Tax, the Federal Estate Tax, and the Federal Gift tax, will not be needed. So the Liberty Amendment will stop these three types of taxes, at the end of the three-year period
CURRENT STATUS
There are currently nine States which have already endorsed the Liberty Amendment. These States and the year in which they endorsed the Amendment are:
Wyoming (’59) • Nevada (’60) • Texas (’60) • Louisiana (’60) • Georgia (’62) • South Carolina (’62) • Mississippi (’82) • Arizona (’82) • Indiana (’82)
Also, on January 28, 2003 the Hon. Ron Paul of Texas introduced in The House of Representatives the House Joint
Resolution 15: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to abolishing personal income, estate, and gift taxes and prohibiting the United States Government from engaging in business in competition with its citizens.
HJR 15 has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. See the latest status of HJR 15.
For more background information, please see The Liberty Amendment – its origin and progress.
THE PURPOSE OF THE LIBERTY AMENDMENT
The purpose of this Amendment is to give full force and effect to the Constitution of the United States; to restore freedom and lost liberties to all Americans; and to restore sovereignty to the United States of America, the States and the body of the People.
The Liberty Amendment will renew personal freedom – the ability of individuals to exercise their God-given rights with a minimum of dependence on, and interference from, the Federal Government. It will restore to ourselves and to future generations the advantages which we inherited from our forefathers – advantages which made us the most fortunate people on earth.
Economic freedom, without which no freedom is possible, will be renewed by terminating federal competition with free enterprise and interference in “our” economy. When this has been accomplished, federal personal income, estate, and gift taxes will be unnecessary. So this Amendment will further renew economic freedom by terminating these taxes.
The Liberty Amendment is designed to regain the Constitutionally guaranteed powers reserved to the States and to the people. We are requesting that all States consider the urgent need to save the sovereignty of the States, the United States in its true Constitutionally framed Republic, and the Individual Liberty of all of our People.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Way back in 1975, Rep. Larry McDonald (D-Georgia) entered an excellent series of Questions and Answers about the Liberty Amendment into the Congressional Record. Even today, this is still one of the best explanations of the Liberty Amendment. Read it here.
The Liberty Amendment will win the battle on 45 issues all at once.
The Liberty Amendment has been designed to fight all the multitude of apparently different battles at once – and win by restoring the Constitution to full force and effect. Once the Amendment is applied, a multitude of diversified battles will be won. Please read this important section.
ACTION FOR AMERICANS: HERE IS THE ACTION BY ANY AMERICAN WHO REALLY WANTS TO ACHIEVE RATIFICATION OF THE LIBERTY AMENDMENT
Since the purpose and design of the Liberty Amendment is to Restore Liberty in America, it is our goal to inform as many Americans as possible about how this amendment to the Constitution will accomplish this difficult task in our time. And since nine States, so far, have passed resolutions requesting Congress to initiate the ratification process, it is our intent to motivate all freedom loving citizens of the remaining States to request their State Legislators to pass a resolution endorsing the Liberty Amendment.
This resolution should request Congress to initiate the preferred process of submitting the Amendment directly to the States for ratification and firmly insist that a Constitutional Convention only be called for the single purpose of ratifying the Liberty Amendment.
So now is the time – for everyone to work for the endorsement of the Liberty Amendment and for its ratification.
We will have to work hard to convince our state legislators that they should introduce a resolution calling for the Congress to submit the the Amendment to the states for ratification. Please read this section to see how you can help!
BACKGROUND READING
The Liberty Amendment – its origin and progress
How the Liberty Amendment originated, its author, and a timeline of its progress through the years.
Growth of the Federal Government
The specter of Federal Government growth in size and power, and the need for the Liberty Amendment is more desperate now than ever.
Centralizing Power in the Federal Government
The erosion of the balance of powers from the States and the People – to the Federal Government, generating momentum for the Liberty Amendment movement.
Bureaucratic Domination
Bureaucratic domination and how it has accelerated in America.
“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence–it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and fearful master.” – George Washington
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No surprise, after all he did marry Andrea Mitchell.
Greenspan out there pushing ARM mortgages on unqualified buyers.
Okay then. Saying ‘sorry’ means all is forgiven?????????
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