And so the great era of deregulation, and maybe American capitalism, comes to a rather simpering end.
Today on Capitol Hill, Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, admitted to Henry Waxman's oversight committee not only that he had been mistaken about the ability of markets to self-regulate, but that he was "shocked" at the "credit tsunami" that has washed over the banking institutions of our (formerly) capitalist nation.
Hearing this was like hearing the President say that aliens had landed and one would soon address the United Nations. It was like hearing the Pope address the crowd in Saint Peter's Square with the news that Jesus had been proved not to be the savior and was never to return. It was like seeing Sarah Palin give us chapter and verse on the constitutional separation of powers.
A good question now would be: who was this Greenspan guy, anyway? And why did everyone trust him so much, and for so long?
--Renaissance
Thursday, October 23, 2008
