In his desperate effort to preserve his legacy, Alan Greenspan has been saying that the only thing that he could have done to stem the housing bubble was to raise interest rates. This would have crashed both the bubble and the economy.
It would be good if reporters asked him about alternatives, like imposing the sort of regulations advocated by fellow Fed governor Ned Gramlich in 2000, and just imposed by the Fed yesterday. At the least, these regulations would have stemmed some of the abuses in the mortgage market we saw in the last three years.
I would have had Greenspan lay out the case for the existence of the bubble at his congressional testimonies and other public speaking appearances. But, if he has trouble with graphs, at the least he didn't have to deny the existence of a housing bubble, as he did repeatedly over this period.
Greenspan failed disastrously in dealing with the housing bubble and he should not be allowed to rewrite history to exonerate himself.
There's too much at stake this November for us to quit. As we navigate another presidential election year, thoughtful independent journalism is more important than ever. We're committed to bringing you the latest news on what's really happening across the country this election season, shining a light on the stories corporate media overlooks and keeping the public informed about how power really works in America.
Quality reporting doesn't come for free, and we don't have corporate backers to rely on to fund our work. Everything we do is thanks to our incredible community of readers, who chip in a few dollars at a time to make what we do possible. This month, we're trying to raise $50,000 to help fuel our election coverage, and we've fallen behind on reaching our goal. Any amount you give today will bring us closer to making our reporting possible—and a generous donor has agreed to match all online donations, so your impact will be doubled.
