Another great article by Catherine. She does a great job getting out economic information in an informative and understandable manner. Volcker set Greenspan up by making a lot of the hard decisions taking over for and coming out of the Carter administration. He deserves credit for managing monetary policy during his tenure.
Great article. Per other commenter, Volcker did alot of clean up before Greenspan--it's largely forgotten how tough late seventies and early eighties were--12% unemployment--I remember news story in Chicago of people circling the block during the winter to apply for hotel jobs--and eye watering interest rates. Nixon had experimented with price/wage controls, a Republican President, which along with oil embargoes and war debt sent rates to 15%, with inflation's effects forcing Volcker to set prime rate at !9% sending home and car loans well above 20% . It worked but it was brutal. What I most remember though was Greenspan's repeated rejection that anything should be done about the mortgage based securities, over and over, the market would take care of it all. The rating agencies were the weak link, but it's still amazing the Fed or SEC didn't bother to determine what these bonds actually contained. It would all just work itself out. Lesson in part has to be beware of ideological assumptions as Fed Chair because Greenspan's bio will always revolve around 2007-2008. Being in DC was terrifying--no one wanted to be Bernanke, Geitner at NY Fed, or Hank Paulson at Treasury--the latter admitted having thrown-up in a nearby waste can before congressional testimony. There were a handful of days it looked like it all was going down the drain--Andrew Sorkin wrote a pretty good book about it as I recall. Beware the new Fed Chair.
The 2008 recession was not mild, and however mild the other recessions of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s were, they certainly affected my career and earnings, as well as that of millions of others.
Never a fan. Pimped for Charles Keating in the eighties, and was one the biggest reasons for the 2008 Great Recession. He probably slept well every night. Cue Billy Joel, "Only The Good Die Young"
RIP Alan Greenspan. If you were in high school/college during the Clinton years, you would remember that Republicans often attributed the economic successes during Clinton’s terms to Alan Greenspan. That way they could decouple the policy positions of Clinton with his personal behavior.
Greenspan I think could best be described as a stabilizing force in the economy because of his appeal across political parties. And while I think Bernanke was the right man for the brutal 2008 recession, Greenspan was the right person for the 1990s.
I’ve always wondered how much of Ayn Rand’s intellectual influence and her philosophy of Objectivism (totally rational self-interest) persisted into her CEA days and particularly his Federal Reserve chairmanship. Rand was his intellectual friend and mentor for much of his early years, and it seemed to me that much of her extremist philosophy seemed to wear off in his later, more consequential years. After all, he wrote a favorable article about a return to the gold standard for Rand’s journal and then ends up as Chairman of the Federal Reserve where, as a central banker, he gets to work with an elastic currency.
Ayn Rand was invited to his swearing in. That should be all we need to explain his governorship. He may have done some good (I'd love to debate that). But he is deeply responsible for so much of the income inequality America experiences today. He was responsible for the barren dessert of fiscal sanity between Volcker and Bernanke. Prove me wrong people!
Ahhh yes, what a bunch of fun it was watching and listening to people try and read the tea leaves on whatever nonsense Greenspan had just garbled out. Well I’m sure the Chairman meant ______ because he was seen to wink his right eye when he said ______ . The Glory Days of economic reporting. Now we’ll have to subscribe to an exclusive feed on a terminal somewhere to glean the words of wisdom of our newest sage.
Another great article by Catherine. She does a great job getting out economic information in an informative and understandable manner. Volcker set Greenspan up by making a lot of the hard decisions taking over for and coming out of the Carter administration. He deserves credit for managing monetary policy during his tenure.
Great article. Per other commenter, Volcker did alot of clean up before Greenspan--it's largely forgotten how tough late seventies and early eighties were--12% unemployment--I remember news story in Chicago of people circling the block during the winter to apply for hotel jobs--and eye watering interest rates. Nixon had experimented with price/wage controls, a Republican President, which along with oil embargoes and war debt sent rates to 15%, with inflation's effects forcing Volcker to set prime rate at !9% sending home and car loans well above 20% . It worked but it was brutal. What I most remember though was Greenspan's repeated rejection that anything should be done about the mortgage based securities, over and over, the market would take care of it all. The rating agencies were the weak link, but it's still amazing the Fed or SEC didn't bother to determine what these bonds actually contained. It would all just work itself out. Lesson in part has to be beware of ideological assumptions as Fed Chair because Greenspan's bio will always revolve around 2007-2008. Being in DC was terrifying--no one wanted to be Bernanke, Geitner at NY Fed, or Hank Paulson at Treasury--the latter admitted having thrown-up in a nearby waste can before congressional testimony. There were a handful of days it looked like it all was going down the drain--Andrew Sorkin wrote a pretty good book about it as I recall. Beware the new Fed Chair.
The 2008 recession was not mild, and however mild the other recessions of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s were, they certainly affected my career and earnings, as well as that of millions of others.
Never a fan. Pimped for Charles Keating in the eighties, and was one the biggest reasons for the 2008 Great Recession. He probably slept well every night. Cue Billy Joel, "Only The Good Die Young"
RIP Alan Greenspan. If you were in high school/college during the Clinton years, you would remember that Republicans often attributed the economic successes during Clinton’s terms to Alan Greenspan. That way they could decouple the policy positions of Clinton with his personal behavior.
Greenspan I think could best be described as a stabilizing force in the economy because of his appeal across political parties. And while I think Bernanke was the right man for the brutal 2008 recession, Greenspan was the right person for the 1990s.
A very impressive life. RIP.
I’ve always wondered how much of Ayn Rand’s intellectual influence and her philosophy of Objectivism (totally rational self-interest) persisted into her CEA days and particularly his Federal Reserve chairmanship. Rand was his intellectual friend and mentor for much of his early years, and it seemed to me that much of her extremist philosophy seemed to wear off in his later, more consequential years. After all, he wrote a favorable article about a return to the gold standard for Rand’s journal and then ends up as Chairman of the Federal Reserve where, as a central banker, he gets to work with an elastic currency.
Ayn Rand was invited to his swearing in. That should be all we need to explain his governorship. He may have done some good (I'd love to debate that). But he is deeply responsible for so much of the income inequality America experiences today. He was responsible for the barren dessert of fiscal sanity between Volcker and Bernanke. Prove me wrong people!
Thanks as always Catherine. My fave Greenspin - when asked at a party how he was, he reportedly replied, "I'm not allowed to say." RIP
Ahhh yes, what a bunch of fun it was watching and listening to people try and read the tea leaves on whatever nonsense Greenspan had just garbled out. Well I’m sure the Chairman meant ______ because he was seen to wink his right eye when he said ______ . The Glory Days of economic reporting. Now we’ll have to subscribe to an exclusive feed on a terminal somewhere to glean the words of wisdom of our newest sage.