Wow. I wonder what the cheerleaders of unfettered free market will say after such a blatant confession by their head coach:
"“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,” Mr. Greenspan said.
Referring to his free-market ideology, Mr. Greenspan added: “I have found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact.”
Mr. Waxman pressed the former Fed chair to clarify his words. “In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working,” Mr. Waxman said.
“Absolutely, precisely,” Mr. Greenspan replied. “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.”
Unfortunately for Mr. Greenspan, this is not "A mistake", but an accumulation of hundreds of erroneous judgments over several years. I have not read his book to have a clear picture of where he is coming from, but he seems to be one more ideologue of the Reagan era suffering an ungraceful fall.
