Remarks by Chairman Alan Greenspan
"In practice, the policy choice of how much, if any, of the extreme market risk that government authorities should absorb is fraught with many complexities. Yet we central bankers make this decision every day, either explicitly or by default. Moreover, we can never know for sure whether the decisions we made were appropriate. The question is not whether our actions are seen to have been necessary in retrospect; the absence of a fire does not mean that we should not have paid for fire insurance. Rather, the question is whether, ex ante, the probability of a systemic collapse was sufficient to warrant intervention. Often, we cannot wait to see whether, in hindsight, the problem will be judged to have been an isolated event and largely benign.
Thus, governments, including central banks, have been given certain responsibilities related to their banking and financial systems that must be balanced. We have the responsibility to prevent major financial market disruptions through development and enforcement of prudent regulatory standards and, if necessary in rare circumstances, through direct intervention in market events. But we also have the responsibility to ensure that private sector institutions have the capacity to take prudent and appropriate risks, even though such risks will sometimes result in unanticipated bank losses or even bank failures."
Interesting...the PPT believers are going to love this. Are we experiencing a "rare circumstance" where the government props up certain stocks, hmmmm.........
Here's one thing I've wondered about. Buying stock is so easy today. Could wealthy interests not fond of the US end up owning large proportions of companies which are important to the US economy and defense?
Looks like after having killed the bull, they are stripping out the last drop of milk from the cow now for themselves.