The purpose of this diary is to compile the links, quotes and resources posted to DavidNYC's call for action on investigating Greenspan's credibility.
DavidNYC's original post/call for action here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/4/132335/4297
This is a ever expanding list. But I have completed going through all the original posts with links, as noted by the (covered) note next to the original posts list at the bottom. If there is something to add to the links list add it in the comments.
[UPDATE! March 7, 2001]: I am now going though and gathering up quotes that some have already extracted, and writing analysis and comparison around those quotes. This new copy resides in the middle of this diary between the sorted links and the original post links. FYI: As part of my citations in the copy I am including links from the sorted list. So links in this new middle section are NOT new. If you would like to contribute to this part of the process feel free to take on a section, write some copy or whatever you think is valuable and put it into the comments section
NOTE to code kids: somehow I broke the site structure a bit, I can't see to find the problem, if you can find the problem in the HTML let me know!
Sorted Links
This is a list of source links and quotes relating to Alan Greenspan. These are direct links to stories, organized by category. This list is always growing:
On Social Security Reform
1983 - Greenspan Commission on Social Security Reform
http://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/gspan5.html
Some Excerpts:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/234#234
On Investing SS Funds in the Stock Market
Against It Examples
1999 - Greenspan sees little gain from Social Security plan
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/143#143
1999 - Greenspan Wary of Market Role in Social Security Rescue
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/security/stories/retire012199.htm
Some Excerpts:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/132#132
2001 - Remarks to the Senate Budget Committee on January 25, 2001
Also linked to in In His Own Words
Transcript:
http://www.senate.gov/~budget/republican/about/hearing2001/greenspan.htm
Some Excerpts:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/124#124
On Investing SS Funds in the Stock Market (and converting to Private Accounts
For It Examples
2005 - Greenspan supports private Social Security accounts
[USA Today]
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/fed/2005-02-16-greenspan-senate_x.htm
On Deficits
1966 - Greenspan: "Deficit spending
is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth"
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quotes.nsf/quotes5/9bcd2fe4cb0e9cb98525687a00761cb8
Article:
Gold and
Economic
Freedom: http://www.321gold.com/fed/greenspan/1966.html
Comments Regrading:
http://www.usagold.com/gildedopinion/Greenspan.html
Comments Regarding:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/240#240
From the Book by Ayn Rand:
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
2003 (Nov) - Greenspan: Deficits Haven't Hurt Economy (Pro Globalization - Anti Protectionist Statements)
http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=P1690_0_6_0_C
2004 (May) - Forbes Magazine Criticism: Greenspan's World Is On Its Ear
http://www.forbes.com/business/2004/05/07/cx_da_0507topnews.html
2004 - Greenspan's Legacy? Worldwide Debt Folly
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_04/goldberg091704.html
2005 Fed's Chief Gives Consumption Tax Cautious Backing
[NYTimes: this text needs to be archived somewhere before it disappears]
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/04/politics/04tax.html
On Stock Market Bubble
Was Predictable
1996 - Federal Open Market Committee Meeting September 24th, 1996
http://www.federalreserve.gov/fomc/transcripts/1996/19960924Meeting.pdf [PDF!]
Was NOT Predictable
2002 - Remarks August 30, 2002
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2002/20020830/default.htm
In His Own Words
All Speeches of Federal Reserve Board Members
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2005/
1966 - Gold and Economic Freedom
Linked above in On Deficits
Also See link re: Schizophrenic Alchemist in Liberal Reviews below
2001 - Remarks to the Senate Budget Committee on January 25, 2001
Transcript:
http://www.senate.gov/~budget/republican/about/hearing2001/greenspan.htm
Some Excerpts:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/69#69
2002 - The Histroy of Money:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2002/200201163/default.htm
2004 - Remarks regarding household debt, credit cards, mortage rates
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/20040223/default.htm
Comments:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/241#241
2004 - Greenspan Preaches About Honest Hard Work
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/20040513/default.htm
Liberal Reviews
William Greider
Book:
Who Will Tell The People?
Articles:
http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/bio.mhtml?id=2
Artciles to look for:
Father Greenspan Retire
Greenspan's Con Job
Il Maestro's Failed Magic, a review of Bob Woodward's "Maestro."
2002 - Slate: The Maestro Is a Hack
http://slate.msn.com/id/2074429/
2004 - Krugman: NYTimes Column 6.6.04
http://www.pkarchive.org/economy/MaestroSlipsOutofTune.html
2004 - Alan Greenspan: Corrupted by Power or Schizophrenic Alchemist?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/englund/englund12.html
2005 - Reid is correct: Greenspan is a Hack. - Did he try to bring Clinton down? [by Dkos's own: lawnorder]
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/4/13623/25475
2005 - Senator Reid Criticizes
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11054540.htm
2005 - Wolcott: Go Already
http://jameswolcott.com/archives/2005/03/go_already.php
2005 - Ronald Brownstein, LA Times: Greenspan's Warning on Deficit Ignores His Role in Its Growth
http://b61.org/archives/2005/03/greenspans_warn.html
Independent Criticism (sort of liberal)
1999 - Exchange between U.S. Representative Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Alan Greenspan
http://www.commondreams.org/bernie_sanders_vs_alan_greenspan.htm
2004 - STATEMENT BY REP. BERNARD SANDERS AT THE GREENSPAN HEARING
http://bernie.house.gov/statements/20040211180416.asp
Libertarian/ Free Market Criticism Of
1987 - Article from "Free Market"
http://www.mises.org/freemarket_detail.asp?control=267&sortorder=authorlast
Class Perspectives
1999 - Greenspan: 'Transcending All Else is Being Principled'
Transcript of Speech at Harvard:
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/06.17/greenspan.html
Highlights of Speech:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/54#54
2005 - Sirotablog - David Sarotahttp://www.davidsirota.com/2005/03/reid-tells-brutal-truth-about-alan.html
Rightwing Criticism Of
2003 - Psssst, Greenspan Is Not God, Pass It On [Forbes]
http://www.forbes.com/2003/02/27/cx_da_0227topnews.html
Some Excerpts:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/74#74
2003 - CEO Network Chat With Steve Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/2003/01/21/0121forbeschat.html
2005 - Stephen Roach, the chief economist for Morgan Stanley & Co
http://www.forbes.com/home/strategies/2005/01/07/cx_da_0107topnews.html
Ideological Roots with Ayn Rand and Objectivists
1997 - The American Enterprise Online
http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.16149/article_detail.asp
1966 Book (also see above under deficits):
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
S&L Scandle Related
Greenspan Supported Lincoln S&L (Keating)
Extended Commentary:
http://users.uniserve.com/~synergy/pg2-05.htm#2-08
Some Excepts:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/216#216
Random
Greenspan Accepts Enron Award
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/micro_stories.pl?ACCT=617800&TICK=NEWS&STORY=/www/story/01-20-2002/0001651486&EDATE=Jan+20,+2002
Greenspan never in War
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/122#122
Greenspan Bond Yield Forcasting Accuracy - Historical Annalysis
http://www.cba.ua.edu/pdf/WP03-06-01.pdf [PDF!]
Federal Reserve raises interest rates significantly more in 1999-2000 than in previous presidential election cycles.
No Source!
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/216#216
1996 - Recvd Award from American Enterpise Institute
http://www.aei.org/events/seriesID.8/series_detail.asp
Other winners:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/258#258
2004 - Greenspan Gives Conflicting Advice About Mortgages: Don't take mortgage advice from Alan Greenspan
[MSN MONEY]
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P73977.asp
[MSN MONEY]
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/P49733.asp
http://mortgagechronicle.com/Home031204.asp
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=2232
2004 - Greenspan History of Visiting Whitehouse
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0524/p17s01-cogn.html
2004 - Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill in Price of Loyalty
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/103#103
2005 - Greenspan turns Fed job into a pulpit
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/03/06/BUGP0BKUM31.DTL
Analysis
Greenspan on Investing Social Security Funds in the Market
A High Likelyhood of Corruption
credit for help with this section:
Dkos member: Dittoz
Dkos member:
Lestatdelc
In 2001, Greenspan, speaking as Chairman of the Borad of the Federal Reserve, testified to the Committee on the Budget United States Senate, that investing Social Security funds in private assets would invite corruption of the government and the financial markets:
"I believe, as I have noted in the past, that the federal government should eschew private asset accumulation because it would be exceptionally difficult to insulate the government's investment decisions from political pressures. Thus, over time, having the federal government hold significant amounts of private assets would risk sub_optimal performance by our capital markets, diminished economic efficiency, and lower overall standards of living than would be achieved otherwise."
reference - http://www.senate.gov/~budget/republican/about/hearing2001/greenspan.htm
Greenspan here is saying that if government money were invested in private assets like stocks and corporate bonds, then politicians and government agencies would suddenly have an incentive to interfear with the market, to make sure the value of those assets is not damaged. It is easy to imagine a scenario where the President, the Congress, the Department of Justice, and regulatory agencies, might collectively coin legilation, pursue or drop criminal cases, over look or craft new regulatiosn that would influence the value of equities held by the Social Security trust fund. This risk would of course exist under President Bush's plan.
And Greenspan was not alone at this time. Kevin Hassett, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute [AEI is home of Robert Bork and Lynne Cheney among others] at the time said the idea is like something you would find in the Communist Soviet Union:
So wny has Greenspan suddenly had a change of heart? Nobody knows, because the chairman doesn't give interviews.
No Financial Benefit
credit for help with this section - Dkos member: jcberk
2001 was not the first time Greenspan spoke out against investing Social Security in private assets.
In 1999, when President Clinton was pushing a plan that would invest social security funds in the stock market, Greenspan was one of the most outspoken voices against such a course of action.
In 1999, the Financial Times of London (March 4, 1999) reported Greenspan was making opposition to Social Security investment in private assets a "one-man campaign"! :
"Mr Greenspan said shifting part of the accumulated surplus of Social Security, the state pension scheme, into equities from the Treasury bonds it now holds exclusively would not produce the big financial gains claimed for it. Nor would it raise the overall returns on the economy's assets needed to meet the long-term goal of raising pension incomes.
'Investing Social Security assets in equities is. .. largely a zero-sum game,'
he told the House of Representatives' ways and means committee. The Fed chairman's remarks went further than his previous expressions of scepticism about the plan, which had been based largely on his concern that the new funds would be subject to too much political interference. Yesterday he challenged the economic assumptions of higher returns on which the proposal was based...Mr Greenspan argued the likely gains had been generally overstated. The process of shifting $ 600bn (£375bn) of public money away from bonds towards equities would in itself lower the price of bonds and raise the price of equities, reducing the return they produced.
'If this is indeed the case, then the net increment to the government of investing the trust fund in equities on an ongoing basis presumably would be less than the historical rates of return suggest,' Mr Greenspan said.
Mr Greenspan said that since the measure would have no overall effect on national savings, any increases in the returns to be had from equities would be offset by lower returns for the rest of the economy.
'The underlying economic assets in the economy would be unchanged, as would the total income generated by those assets. Any increase in returns realised by Social Security must be offset by a reduction in returns earned on private portfolios, which represent, to a large extent, funds held for retirement.'
"
reference -
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/143#143
Org Posts
This is a list of all the posts here on DailyKos (in David's orginal call to action) that contain either a discription, a quote, or a link, and in just a few cases really good ideas.
The list also contains each post's title.
Contradictions from '99
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/143#143
dkos & white house on same side??
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/222#222
Resource Link
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/94#94
In The Price of Loyalty
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/103#103
Reid Tells the Brutal Truth About Alan Greenspan
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/3#3
Bush Privatization = Soviet-Style Communism
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/5#5
RESOURCE: Fed Reserve Speeches Archive 1996-2005
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/92#92
Greenspan and Ayn Rand
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/9#9
Economics is a tricky subject (good ideas)
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/13#13
Greenspan accepted the Enron Award
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/18#18
Interesting take from a free marketer
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/30#30
Stephen Roach, the chief economist for Morgan Stanley & Co goes after Greenspan
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/33#33
Greenspan Commission
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/34#34
Al wants you to pay higher mortgage
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/39#39
Slate Article about him from 2002
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/48#48
Reid is correct: Greenspan is a Hack. - Did he try to bring Clinton down?
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/4/13623/25475
AG: Transcending All Else is Being Principled
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/54#54
Greenspan: Deficits Haven't Hurt Economy
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/58#58
Greenspan on deficit spending
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/60#60
Greenspan in Jan 2001 (with NYTimes link)
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/69#69
more dependable link (?)
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/229#229
Greenspan and the Gold standard
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/71#71
Psssst, Greenspan Is Not God, Pass It On
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/74#74
Schizophrenic Alchemist?
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/79#79
where to begin - the possibilites are endless (4 links)
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/95#95
Bernie Sanders Rips Greenspan
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/116#116
Repugs don't wear uniforms. They wear costumes.
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/122#122
What does Greenspan think about private accounts?
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/124#124
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/221#221
More Greenspan flip-flopping
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/132#132
says whatever anyone who pays him the most
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/164#164
The most damaging essay Greenspan wrote
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/157#157
From Krugman archive.
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/186#186
ederal Reserve's Open Market Committee continues to raise interest rates significantly more in 1999-2000 than in previous presidential election cycles
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/216#216
Lincoln S&L: 1985-1987
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/201#201
Back Up to the ROOTS of Greenspan Ideology
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/219#219
National Commission on Social Security (1983)
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/234#234
Encouraging the use of adjustable rate mortgages
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/238#238
citation on Greenspan ARM endorsement
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/241#241
Greenspan lied about bubble
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/253#253
1996 Recvd Award from American Enterpise Institute
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/258#258
Major Media Coverage Already
(covered)http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/4/132335/4297/259#259
whew
-AB