Marketplace radio raised the question of whether Alan Greenspan might bear some of the responsibility for the turmoil hitting the mortgage market. The beatification process is apparenly still underway. The one economist cited criticized the critics for using 20-20 hiindsight in talking about the mortgage mayhem and the housing bubble. Of course, some of us critics had 20-20 foresight, we just didn't get our views presented in outlets like Marketplace. (Is being wrong a pre-condition?)
The segment also tried to claim that Greenspan warned about the housing bubble, playing a comment from two years ago in which, in classic Greenspanspeak, he warned that when markets begin to discount risk it can lead to a subsequent depreciation of asset values. I'm sure that gave potential homebuyers pause.
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