We run the risk, by laying out the pros and cons of a particular argument, of inducing people to join in on the debate, and in this regard it is possible to lose control of a process that only we fully understand.

Alan Greenspan

…that only we understand? really? as Andrew Sullivan points out: staggering quote from a man who later confessed he had no idea what had happened in the financial collapse of 2008.


You “failed to prevent housing bubble, failed to prevent the predatory lending scandal, failed to prevent the activities that would bring the financial system to the verge of collapse.”

“You failed to prevent many of our banks from consolidating and growing to a size that are now too big or too interconnected to fail,

Brooksley Born, the former head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, declared Alan Greenspan’s tenure at the Federal Reserve an unmitigated failure – to his face. [Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearing]

continue reading… firedoglake 

If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and watch Frontline’s “The Warning”. It documents how ahead of the curve Born was on the looming economic crisis and how she was ignored, purposely I might add, by Greenspan, Rubin, Summers and Co. 

watch here