Go away and leave us alone

Ex-Maestro Alan Greenspan has offered up a remarkable stream of platitudes in the wake of the S&P ratings downgrade. Here are some extracts from an article on the Business Week website:

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he expects stocks to continue their decline after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the nation’s credit rating, even as an S&P official predicted little market impact.

“Considering the momentum in which the market went down over the last week, it is very unlikely, if history is any guide, that this isn’t going to take a while to bottom out,” Greenspan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “So the initial reaction in my judgment is going to be negative.”

.....Greenspan said U.S. government bonds are safe investments. “Very much so,” he said. At the same time the S&P downgrade, which stemmed from the political clash over the debt limit, “hit a nerve that there’s something basically bad going on,” Greenspan said.

Don't you just love that Dylanesque last phrase? You know there's something happening, but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr Jones?

And if Al isn't quite sure what's happening, it probably means he doesn't have any idea who's to blame, either. Well, Al, if you're reading this, here are a few hints:

Who was the Fed chairman who repeatedly cut interest rates in response to every setback in equity markets (creating the infamous "Greenspan put") and kept them far too low throughout the economic expansion of the mid-noughties?

Who enthusiastically endorsed the Bush tax cuts and spending initiatives that are the true cause of the US's current fiscal woes; this after he had ferociously castigated the Clinton administration for even thinking about fiscal stimulus?

Who pushed for ever-greater deregulation of the financial sector, effectively dismantling the Glass-Steagall rules that had helped keep the US financial system relatively stable for half a century?

It's quite a charge sheet, though the man himself has never given the slightest hint of having second thoughts, let alone feeling any remorse. The big surprise is that Business Week and Meet the Press still solicit his opinions. Then again, maybe there's money to be made here. As Daniel Gross (@grossdm) of Yahoo tweeted when he saw the Business Week piece, "Breaking! Reliable buy signal! Greenspan says stocks will decline further".