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Sunday, April 11, 2010

Greenspan's Perception 1

I just started reading "The Age of Turbulence" by Alan Greenspan. I only got to page 14 of the introduction when I could not believe what I was reading. He says, and I quote, "The decline of real (inflation-adjusted) long-term interest rates that has occurred in the past two decades has been associated with rising price-to-earnings rations for stocks, real estate and in fact all income-earning assets. The market value of assets worldwide between 1985 and 2006 as a consequence rose at a faster than that of nominal world GDP... This created a Major increase in world liquidity. Stock and bond prices, homes, commercial real estate, paintings, and most everything else joined in the boom. Homeowners in many developed nations were able to dip into their growing home equity to finance purchases beyond what their incomes could finance." and he goes on to glow about the annual rate of growth of the world economy from 2000-2006 of 3.2% per head adding that "Market capitalism, the engine that runs most of the world economy, seems to be doing it's job well."

Now I get it. Greenspan gloats for pages in his introduction, not about the American economy, which in my eyes from 1985-2006 had about 6 years of real growth (from 1994-2000 roughly), with the rest of the period either in recession, stagnation or outright "borrowed money asset inflation" just as he says, with NO REAL UNDERLYING GROWTH OR PROSPERITY, just a wholesale transfer of what wealth there was to the hands of those who orchestrated that transfer, but about the "global economy". It does not matter that we in the US had a serious and deep recession in the early 80's that did irreparable harm to our economy, that this recession was followed by a debt fueled asset bubble not unlike we just experienced that collapsed fantastically in the late 1980's resulting in the near melt-down of the US financial system, followed by a stagnant period of about 5 years with anemic growth (remember "It's the economy stupid" in 1992), declining standards of living, an implosion of our cities with drugs, crime and exodus, and the whole sale moving of our "productive" capacity out of the nation (accompanied with the gutting of the American education system creating a couple generations of useless ignorant graduates who were slaves to carbon and isolated from any means of economic advancement).

Greenspan is a complete globalist. He should be tried and convicted of NOT PERFORMING HIS DUTY AS HEAD OF THE FED ACCORDING TO THE OATH HE TOOK. It is obvious as hell his perceptions are global, not national. What do you do when the guy who runs the Fed in the US runs it as if he is running the "world economy" and makes no attempt to hide the fact that he measures his success at the Fed based on the success of the "world economy" not the US economy.

I get it now, I really get it now. The powerful multinational corporations and the success of their ability to exploit the rest of the planet for their profits is and has for some time WAY trumped the Fed's priorities of real growth, low inflation and full employment in the US. I have known since my undergraduate days at the University of Maryland that some 85% or more of the US "currency" in circulation was outside of the US. Now I understand, when we have a Fed Chairman like Greenspan running the Fed, this is how he sees his role, the US is about 15% of the economy he controls monetary policy over. What ignorant fool would think the Fed cares more than that about the American economy.

If you think I am off base, just read Greenspan's own introduction to his own book. You will get it. I need not say more.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Indeed! Well said. And, history will most certainly never get over the drunken-party (or the hangover) that was the Greenspan years. Oh, how I recall so many raving about this liberal arts educated and perhaps somewhat over-intellectual man who ran the elixir machine of the fake US economy for so many years. I honestly have tried not to wish bad on other people. If only there were no peole like Greenspan. At the least, the world will be a better place when he is finally gone. This can also be said of so many others of his generation. E.g. Henry Kissinger - who was recently in the news because someone finally found real evidence that he was nothing more than a murdering, empirical thug who systematically participated in ordering the deaths of govt. officials in South America. What to do with these powerful and constitutionally ignorant individuals is beyond rational thought. Down with them all - and let them rot like the dinasaur pigs they are.
Or something like that.
-tgs-