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Posted by: 1-2-Oscar 6 months, 2 weeks ago

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1-2-Oscar6 months, 2 weeks ago

Aside from President Bush himself, no one did more to cause the current economic problems than Alan Greenspan.
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  donald516 months, 2 weeks ago
  
  Why? Because he didn't speak up while in office about all the frivolous Repug spending versus the increased debt? Heck, he knew he would have been fired like Lindsay, the Bush financial advisor fired for telling Dumya the Iraq war might cost 200 billion!
  Had to neg ya, Oscar, but I gave you a reason! Also, Greenspan sure helped Clinton with 8 prosperous years, didn't he?
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    Justice4All6 months, 2 weeks ago
    
    The Fed does not answer to Bush. We can blame Bush for the state of the economy, but it was Greenspan who kept lowering interest rates to prop up the economy that Bush was destroying. The low interest rates eventually led to the mortgage crisis.
    I have to agree with 1-2-Oscar, Greenspan is almost as responsible for the current economic situition as Bush.
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      bigG6 months, 2 weeks ago
      
      Not completely correct - the Fed Chairman is appointed by the President and confirmed by Congress. As such, you can rest assured a certain amount of "arse kissing" goes on. Once his term is up, if he wants to keep his job he must be reappointed. I have a theory that pressure was put on the Fed by the White House back in 2003 to start massively lowering interest rates to spur the economy(the economy was doing poorly then). The one thing Bush didn't want was to be a "one termer" like his Daddy(who lost in 92 at least partially due to the economy).
      I agree with the part about Greenspan as it takes two to tango. Like the old adage "do it once, and you are one for life".
      It's not surprising that he doesn't think the lowest interest rates in 50 years contributed to the housing bubble and mortgage crisis.
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  bonaroo6 months, 2 weeks ago
  
  1-2-Oscar
  I agree. Greenspan should never have left interest rates so low for so long. I wonder, though, how much pressure he was under to do so from the other members.
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