Greenspan's forthcoming book

[Backlighting]

ALAN GREENSPAN WARNS: 'no viable long-term solution to our badly warped economy' without fixing political system....article at:

http://www.politico.com/playbook/0913/playbook11706.html

[BaalChatzaf]

ALAN GREENSPAN WARNS: 'no viable long-term solution to our badly warped economy' without fixing political system....article at:

http://www.politico.com/playbook/0913/playbook11706.html

In short, we are fucked. The system will collapse, then we will have to act.

[9thdoctor]

The Map and the Territory: Risk, Human Nature, and the Future of Forecasting

http://www.amazon.com/The-Map-Territory-Nature-Forecasting/dp/1594204810/ref=sr_1_sc_1

I wonder if he's been converted to the philosophy of Korzybski, picking a title like that.

[Backlighting]

ALAN GREENSPAN WARNS: 'no viable long-term solution to our badly warped economy' without fixing political system....article at:

http://www.politico.com/playbook/0913/playbook11706.html

C'mon Alan. Were you asleep during the reading & discussion of AR's manuscript?

The political status quo is the result of the prevailing "I'm my brothers keeper" philosophy.

It is the prevailing philosophy of the masses that needs changing. That's how it is fixed.

[caroljane]

Clunkiest, pmpousest title ever. Why didn't he just call it "Run for your Lives: there's No Tomorrow!"

[caroljane]

Pompousest. I know, it should be "most pmpous", but that's the point.

Editor is working some of the time now, just not at this time.

[Backlighting]

ALAN GREENSPAN WARNS: 'no viable long-term solution to our badly warped economy' without fixing political system....article at:

http://www.politico.com/playbook/0913/playbook11706.html

C'mon Alan. Were you asleep during the reading & discussion of the AS manuscript?

The political status quo is the result of the prevailing "I'm my brothers keeper" philosophy.

It is the prevailing philosophy of the masses that needs changing. That's how it is fixed.

[9thdoctor]

He's got a new one upcoming:

https://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-America-History-Alan-Greenspan-ebook/dp/B079WKXYYR/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536618931&sr=8-1&keywords=alan+greenspan

I wonder how it'll be made to relate to Trump.  No doubt he'll be making the rounds of the talking heads shows, and they'll all be prompting him to speak ill of the current prez.

[9thdoctor]

On 9/10/2018 at 6:38 PM, 9thdoctor said:

I wonder how it'll be made to relate to Trump.  No doubt he'll be making the rounds of the talking heads shows, and they'll all be prompting him to speak ill of the current prez.

I just finished the book, and no, there's not much negativity directed at Trump.  The closest thing to a take-down quote: "Donald Trump is the closest thing that America has produced to a Latin American style populist".  No comparisons to Hitler, Stalin, or Cthulhu. 

The book was worthwhile.  It's an economic history of the U.S., with a fair number of interesting and unfamiliar anecdotes/figures to keep the engagement level high enough.  I think if I'd read it back in High School I'd be gushing over it for its insight etc. 

He appeared on Fox last week, and looks/sounds pretty good for his age (92).  I can't figure out how to embed the video. 

https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/trump-was-right-to-cut-taxes-but-fed-criticism-is-awkward-alan-greenspan

 

[Jonathan]

Does the book offer any analysis of Greenspan's opinions of the causes of the 08 bubble-burst/crash?

J

[9thdoctor]

1 hour ago, Jonathan said:

Does the book offer any analysis of Greenspan's opinions of the causes of the 08 bubble-burst/crash?

J

Nothing like you'll find in Thomas Sowell's or John Allison's books on the topic.  There's a chapter on the 2000's (amusingly, it's Chapter 11), and it narrates what happened, but it's not like Sowell's documentation of: Carter passed this law, Janet Reno announced she'd be enforcing it in a new way on this date, GWB expanded on it further, etc. and so on. 

Greenspan's book goes all the way back to 1776, so it's not just a recent history.  A good chunk of the book is given over to explaining techniques for estimating economic statistics for the pre-Civil War period.  And oddly, though he discusses Fed Chairmen from Mellon to Volcker, he never discusses his own time at the Fed.  Meaning, he doesn't make himself a character in the story. 

 

 

[Jonathan]

18 hours ago, 9thdoctor said:

Nothing like you'll find in Thomas Sowell's or John Allison's books on the topic.  There's a chapter on the 2000's (amusingly, it's Chapter 11), and it narrates what happened, but it's not like Sowell's documentation of: Carter passed this law, Janet Reno announced she'd be enforcing it in a new way on this date, GWB expanded on it further, etc. and so on. 

Greenspan's book goes all the way back to 1776, so it's not just a recent history.  A good chunk of the book is given over to explaining techniques for estimating economic statistics for the pre-Civil War period.  And oddly, though he discusses Fed Chairmen from Mellon to Volcker, he never discusses his own time at the Fed.  Meaning, he doesn't make himself a character in the story. 

That's too bad.  In 2008 he seemed to be willing to place at least some of the blame of the housing market crash on lack of regulation of the derivatives market, thus feeding into the left's agenda, and not bothering to correct them way they've gone way beyond what he has actually said. He was guarded and cryptic, and, unfortunately, the members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform were too interested in the politics of their own predetermined outcomes to have the curiosity to try to pull reluctant answers out of him. Greenspan himself seemed to be more in cover-your-ass mode than I'd ever seen him. I had hoped that at some point -- by now -- he'd have had the balls to speak more freely about it. In the absence of such commentary, the left's douchebag false Narrative™ has been that, see, free markets don't work and are the cause of everything bad, and even Greenspan admitted that every bit of his philosophy of economics and his adoration of freedom was foolish and naive. Why did he do it? Why? It must be that he hates people and wants them to die, just like his mentor and hero Ayn Rand!

J