Originally Posted By mawnck <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aKZG._gG2NVI&refer=politics" target="_blank">http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/...politics</a> >>Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the country can't afford $3.3 trillion of tax cuts proposed by Republican presidential nominee John McCain without corresponding spending reductions. Greenspan, a lifelong Republican and longtime friend of McCain, said today on Bloomberg Television's ``Political Capital With Al Hunt'' that ``I'm not in favor of financing tax cuts with borrowed money.''<< >>``I always have tied tax cuts to spending,'' Greenspan said. In 2001 testimony before Congress, Greenspan was widely interpreted to have endorsed Bush's proposal to cut taxes by $1.6 trillion over 10 years. In the book, Greenspan characterized his testimony as politically careless and said his words were misinterpreted.<<
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Well, hell you certainly have to listen to Greenspan... the man responsible for the mortgage meltdown.
Originally Posted By dshyates "Well, hell you certainly have to listen to Greenspan... the man responsible for the mortgage meltdown." Your joking right? The Fed had NOTHING to do with the mortgage meltdown. There was no way the Fed could do anything about it. It was Gramm-Leach-Bliley's Financial Servicies Modernization Act that caused the barriers between commercial banking, investment banking, and insurance to be removed allowing for bundling and selling of loans that cause the mortgae meltdown.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<Your joking right? The Fed had NOTHING to do with the mortgage meltdown. There was no way the Fed could do anything about it. >> I have read MANY news articles indicating differently. I'm not going to pursue that here, but if you'd like to start another thread I'll play.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy The Fed had a role to play in the mortgage crisis, but I wouldn't hold that organization solely responsible. They are a convenient scapegoat. Most Fed critics say that they held interest rates too low for too long. However, interest rate policy really had little to do with the housing boom. It was lax lending standards, packaging of toxic loans as investment vehicles, and a sick euphoria created by real estate agents selling housing as a get rich quick scheme that contributed to the mess. The Fed certainly could have intervened, but I suspect it would have been seen as a very unpopular and "anti-business" move by all the parties who were making money hand over fist while property values were skyrocketing.
