As the saying goes, "those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it." The economic melt-down we’re in is directly related to the history of Greenspan’s tenure as Fed Chairman and the laissez-faire economic policies of the GOP. Yet, we keep repeating the same story over and over again.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/23/144621/05/745/639975

Alan Greenspan knows what the Glass Steagall act is in place for. Allowing Bill Clinton and Janet Reno to modify that act without screaming out loud implies that he's a very stupid man. Or he was paid to be quit. Alan Greenspan saying he doesn't understand why the free market didn't police itself? Have we suddenly reverted back to the wild west? PLease! Alan your a boob. Stop talking. You have your money go home. Your suggesting that the free market should come to an end. I don't want to here what your solution is. You and your socialist wife. I'm very sick of your kind. Please go and start your own country someplace else. As for the Texican. Your obviously a democrat. And for history, you obvioulsy don't know how or what the Glass Steagall act was even about. So get your own history right before you go talking about things you know nothing about.

There is a rather odd view of Capitalism -- specifically that it is a kind of religion. Well, it's not. It's an economic theory that has never worked very well by itself. It has worked well when combined with socialism-lite, i.e. regulation. It makes no sense to regulate retail, wholesale, or manufacturing. It is imperative to regulate our infrastructure, eg, banking, transportation, communication.... Without that, we get the phenomenon taught in BusAd 101. -- suboptimization. I was under the impression that Mr. Greenspan taught that course. Maybe not. But at least he must have taken it.

Alan Greenspan has been an Ayn Rand-supporting, Objectivist, Libertarian Republican for many years. He is very adept at voicing words that are difficult to decipher. His words mean far less than his actions. His policies and decisions as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve ushered in this monstrous financial debacle! He has been every bit as responsible as Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan, William F. Buckley and their ilk. All of these people have seen fit to erode, destroy, degrade and otherwise render ineffectual society's RIGHT to regulate the economy in the interest of the public!! John Kenneth Galbraith was correct all along, and the peple named above, and many more of their minions have been PROVEN incorrect. The PROBLEM is that the PUBLIC (the tax-paying citizens) are feeling the greatest pain and suffering. The profiteers have ridden off nto the sunset with their millions!

this is what i am talking about, the only organization with any power is the mafia, and no one else stop blaming the people. the organization make these rules,took the money and gone, the banks and builders didn't lose any money. the american way would be to let anyone with a real job,become a home owner, with a 2.5 interest rate. the home owner are the ones paying for all the earmarks.why is it we paid $135,000. for our home and now 20 years later we've only paid maybe $40,000? so the banks will always make money.i wouldn't be a home owner if i know what i know now.people from another country can own a home in 5 years, but american take 30 years.i can't wait for obama to make a line by line change,for american, where i a real sense america has just been a dream,a dream as yet unfulfilled it is a dream of a land where people of all races of all nationalities and of all creeds can live together, not the japan,china,mexican,latino,jewish neighborhood but an american neighborhood, if they want that sort of neighborhood go back to your country,don't bring your country here.

This person needs to be tried for treason.
How many other so called experts are on the Federal Reserve ? Congress might stop outsourcing their responsibility and/or perhaps forget money as it is and change to some other form of trade. Think about it! We wouldn't need the IRS either. If there is one more so called expert that tells this country what it needs to do economically, they need to run them out of the country. Because in truth no one here, today in this country knows what is the best way. We have raised a bunch of crooks and scoundrels and our government has been a participant or asleep at the top. We can only thank ourselves for buying into their 'marketing scam.' No More empty suits.

So much for "supply-side" economics! So much for the wonderful "free market"! What all that theory allowed is for the Wall Street sharks to get what they want for "free". THAT is what Reagan, Bush, Buckley, Friedman, Cheney, Perle, Wolfowitz and all these other "compassionate conservatives" have REALLY been all about. "Deregulation" and "privatization" have been their mantra. They have HATED the idea of "big government" when applied to governmental oversight of corporate and financial institutions, but they LOVE the "big government" when our tax dollars are used to subsidize corporate R&D or to give huge profits to "defense contractors". They HATED "big government" when it means helping common citizens with social programs that are desperately needed. THOSE programs are attacked as "entitlements". Welfare and Social Security are attacked! Unemployment insurance is attacked. Universal healthcare...the very IDEA of it...is attacked. THESE are all derided and labelled "entitlements". When Reagan and Bush instituted massive tax cuts for the very WEALTHIEST of our citizens, THAT was NEVER attacked as "entitlements". Tax cuts for the wealthy are always supported by these "compassionate conservatives" on the flimsy and transparent basis of "trickle-down" economics! Greenspan is a charlatan and a tool of the elite. Anyone who has ever undertaken a serious study of American history knows the record. Corporate elites have historically used all the considerable power at their disposal to prevent, thwart, erode, destroy, and reverse any attempt by the general public, through our elected officials, to regulate business activities in such a way as to ensure public safety and welfare.

Karl Rove, Richard Perle, David Addington, Douglas Feith, and all the rest of these neoconservative, shock-troop apologists for corporate thievery have succeeded in forging an unholy alliance with the very conservative Christian evangelical population amongst our citizenry. The Bush Administration has shamelessly degraded our entire quality of life, justifying all manner of destruction to our Constitution, our infrastructure, our citizens' food supply, the safety of our communities, our military, and our very lives. They have done all this while preaching "faith-based initiatives" and "family values"!

Greenspan has been an integral power player in the entire affair. He has preached deregulation for decades! He pretends now to be surprised and shocked that the banks and mortgage lenders did not do a more conscientious job of "self-regulation". This stance by Mr. Greenspan is an INSULT to our intelligence! Does he REALLY expect us to believe that he did not know what would happen if the wolf were put in charge of watching the henhouse? Business has NEVER willingly and effectively regulated itself in the public interest. NEVER! Business HATES the very IDEA of regulation. What part of that equation does Greenspan not understand? The common citizen understands that you don’t put the wolf in charge of the henhouse.

The “economists”, especially Milton Friedman and his disciples, that have spouted all this rhetoric about free markets and supply-side dynamics and privatization have ALL been hoodwinking the American people for decades! A RESPONSIBLE First World society would have a RESPONSIBLE public sector that would RESPONSIBLY manage the business cycle in a way that would bring the greatest benefit to the society as a whole. American government has ALWAYS been hamstrung by our corporate elites, EVEN during FDR’s Administrations. At LEAST during the New Deal SOME sector of the elites acknowledged their responsibilities to society in general. This neoconservative onslaught under Reagan, Bush et al has done everything in its power to reverse whatever safeguards were put in place to protect the common citizen! They have pretty much succeeded in trashing our nation!

John Kenneth Galbraith had a career-long,running disagreement with two people that he knew quite well and counted as personal friends: Milton Friedman (the economist who has most vociferously endorsed the monetarist, "free market",deregulation movement in American economic theory), and William F. Buckley (the ultra-conservative founder and editor-in-chief of the National Review). The thoroughly discredited "conservative" ideology that runs rampant throughout American history in the modern era was always seen very clearly by Mr. Galbraith for exactly what it is: a very thinly-disguised justification for elitist greed and profit-taking at ANY cost, regardless of the consequences to the greater society as a whole.

The neoconservatives are polar opposites of what John Kenneth Galbraith stood represented. Mr. Galbraith, who had a long, productive and illustrious career, had the temerity to assert society's right to "manage the business cycle" in such a manner as to provide the greatest opportunity for the greatest number of our citizens in such areas as: education, healthcare, near-full employment, a fair and equitable taxation policy, and so forth.

Friedman and Buckley, and MANY others, vehemently disagreed, asserting that unfettered and unregulated behavior by the "business community" would "automatically" devolve to the greater good of the public interest. They totally IGNORED the historical record of our nation's runup to the crash of 1929 and the horrific Great Depression that followed.

Palin/McCain are not nearly as well-schooled academically as any of the 3 aforementioned, yet they are organically wed to the blindness that inheres in the neoconservative disdain for any concept of corporate responsibility to the public welfare! Their vacuous attempts to critique Senators Obama and Biden merely expose the Republican ticket for the empty shell that it is.

McCain/Palin and their "handlers" are so intellectually impoverished that the BEST they can come up with are asinine accusations of "SOCIALISM". I would be willing to wager that neither Republican "candidate" could manage an impromptu definition of the word "socialism" that would reasonably pass muster in a 12th-grade midterm exam essay question! Yet, they bandy the term about, HOPING that the electorate will reflrxively shudder in horror at its very MENTION! Such dinosaurs the Republicans are! So transparently vapid are their tactics and strategies! So ARROGANT of them to so nakedly condescend to and patronize our citizenry.