Alan Greenspan: Trending quotes

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Alan Greenspan: 102 quotes0 likes

“The need for values is inbred. Their content is not.”

"Introduction" p. 17.
2000s, The Age of Turbulence (2008)

“American consumers might benefit if lenders provided greater mortgage product alternatives to the traditional fixed-rate mortgage.”

Alan Greenspan

February 2004 http://www.startribune.com/nation/12598281.html, in a speech praising the benefits of adjustable-rate mortgages. 2000s

“The Fabians laid the groundwork for modern social democracy, and their influence on the world would end up being at least as powerful as that of Marx.”

Alan Greenspan

Source: 2000s, The Age of Turbulence (2008), Chapter Twelve, "The Universals of Economic Growth", p. 265.

“That said, there can be little doubt that exceptionally low interest rates on ten-year Treasury notes, and hence on home mortgages, have been a major factor in the recent surge of homebuilding and home turnover, and especially in the steep climb in home prices. Although a 'bubble' in home prices for the nation as a whole does not appear likely, there do appear to be, at a minimum, signs of froth in some local markets where home prices seem to have risen to unsustainable levels.”

Alan Greenspan

Greenspan on June 9, 2005 http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/testimony/2005/200506092/default.htm. 2000s

“Cash is available and we should use that in larger amounts, as is necessary, to solve the problems of the stress of this.”

Alan Greenspan

December 2007 http://www.startribune.com/nation/12598281.html, in an interview Sunday on ABC's This Week. Greenspan suggested the government should boost support to homeowners facing the prospect of losing their homes because their mortgages are resetting to higher interest rates. 2000s

“We are obviously all hurt by inflation. Everybody is hurt by inflation. If you really wanted to examine who percentage-wise is hurt the most in their incomes, it is the Wall Street brokers. I mean their incomes have gone down the most.”

Alan Greenspan

At a conference on inflation, Washington, D.C. (September 19, 1974). In Report of the Health, Education, and Welfare, Income Security, Social Services Conference on Inflation (1974), pp. 804–5.
1970s

“I came to a stark realization: chronic surpluses could be almost as destabilizing as chronic deficits.”

Alan Greenspan

Source: 2000s, The Age of Turbulence (2008), Chapter Ten, "Downturn", p. 218.

“We generally did not talk about the stock market very much at the Fed.”

Alan Greenspan

Source: 2000s, The Age of Turbulence (2008), Chapter Eight, "Irrational Exuberance", p. 165.

“Of course, shedding the debt burden would be a happy development for our country, but it would nevertheless pose a big dilemma for the Fed. Our primary lever of monetary policy was buying and selling treasury securities-Uncle Sam's IOU's. But as the debt was paid down, those securities would grow scarce, leaving the Fed in need of a new set of assets to effect monetary policy.”

Alan Greenspan

Source: 2000s, The Age of Turbulence (2008), Chapter Ten, "Downturn", p. 214.

“Over the years I have had the most contact with Lee Kuan Yew, most recently in 2006, and have always found him impressive, even though we do not always see eye to eye. I met him first when he was George Shultz's guest at the famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) Bohemian Grove, a male only bonding retreat among the redwoods of California.”

Alan Greenspan

Source: 2000s, The Age of Turbulence (2008), Chapter Fifteen, "The Tigers and the Elephant", p. 312.

“[There are] signs of froth in some local markets where home prices seem to have risen to unsustainable levels.”

Alan Greenspan

July 2005 http://www.startribune.com/nation/12598281.html, in testimony to the House Financial Services Committee. 2000s

“Nor can private counterparties restrict supplies of gold, another commodity whose derivatives are often traded over-the-counter, where central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise.”

Alan Greenspan

Testimony Before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives July 24, 1998 http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/testimony/1998/19980724.htm. 1990s

“Once stock prices reach the point at which it is hard to value them by logical methodology, stocks will be bought as they were in the late 1920s not for investment but to be unloaded at a still higher price. The ensuing break could be disastrous because panic psychology cannot be summarily altered or reversed by easing money policies.”

Alan Greenspan

Greenspan in 1959. http://www.safehaven.com/article-171.htm. 1950–60s

“Globalization was exerting a dis-inflationary impact.”

Alan Greenspan

Source: 2000s, The Age of Turbulence (2008), Chapter Eleven, "The Nation Challenged", p. 228.

“The reason there is very little support for the gold standard is the consequences of those types of market adjustments are not considered to be appropriate in the 20th and 21st century. I am one of the rare people who have still some nostalgic view about the old gold standard, as you know, but I must tell you, I am in a very small minority among my colleagues on that issue.”

Alan Greenspan

Speaking to a Hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services in 7/22/1998 http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/publication-issue/?id=13650 1990s

“I was aware that the loosening of mortgage credit terms for subprime borrowers increased financial risk. But I believed then, as now, that the benefits of broadened home ownership are worth the risk.”

Alan Greenspan

September 2007 http://www.startribune.com/nation/12598281.html, Greenspan's memoir The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in the New World. 2000s

“Capitalism is based on self-interest and self-esteem; it holds integrity and trustworthiness as cardinal virtues and makes them pay off in the marketplace, thus demanding that men survive by means of virtue, not vices. It is this superlatively moral system that the welfare statists propose to improve upon by means of preventative law, snooping bureaucrats, and the chronic goad of fear.”

Alan Greenspan

The Assault on Integrity http://homepage.mac.com/tomdalekeever/greenspanintegrity.html 1963 1950–60s

“It's hard to overemphasize how important Ford's deregulation was. True, most of the benefits took years to unfold-rail freight rates, for example hardly budged at first. Yet deregulation set the stage for an enormous wave of creative destruction in the 1980s:…”

Alan Greenspan

Source: 2000s, The Age of Turbulence (2008), Chapter Three, "Economics Meets Politics", p. 72.

“I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you've probably misunderstood what I said.”

Alan Greenspan

1988 speech, as quoted in The New York Times, October 28, 2005.
Sometimes misquoted as: "If I have made myself clear, I've misspoken."
1980s

“Modern dynamic economies do not stay still long enough to allow for an accurate reading of their underlying structures.”

Alan Greenspan

Source: 2000s, The Age of Turbulence (2008), Chapter One, "City Kid", p. 36.