Alan Greenspan: Trending quotes (page 3)

“Without calling the overall national issue a bubble, it's pretty clear that it's an unsustainable underlying pattern.”

Alan Greenspan

May 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/21/business/21fed.html?_r=1&oref=slogin, Greenspan said in a speech that he did not believe there was a national housing bubble similar to the bubble in the stock market. But he said there was "froth" in housing and he called the pace of housing price increases unsustainable.
2000s

“An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense—perhaps more clearly and subtly than many consistent defenders of laissez-faire—that gold and economic freedom are inseparable, that the gold standard is an instrument of laissez-faire and that each implies and requires the other.”

Alan Greenspan

Gold and Economic Freedom http://www.constitution.org/mon/greenspan_gold.htm 1966
1950–60s

Sense , Freedom

“When trust is lost, a nation's ability to transact business is palpably undermined.”

Alan Greenspan

Source: 2000s, The Age of Turbulence (2008), Chapter Twelve, "The Universals of Economic Growth", p. 256.

Business

“We had a bubble in housing.”

Alan Greenspan

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (18 September 2007), " Alan Greenspan Interview with Jim Lehrer http://youtube.com/watch?v=yU4WjhijOMY".
2000s

Housing

“The probability of ten consecutive heads is 0.1 percent; thus, when you have millions of coin tossers, or investors, in the end there will be thousands of very successful practitioners of coin tossing, or stock picking.”

Alan Greenspan

Source: 2000s, The Age of Turbulence (2008), Chapter Twenty-Five, "The Delphic Future", p. 465.

Success

“While local economies may experience significant price imbalances, a national severe price distortion seems most unlikely in the United States, given its size and diversity.”

Alan Greenspan

October 19, 2004 http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/20041019/default.htm, playing down the threat of a national housing bubble.
2000s

“The world of antitrust is reminiscent of Alice’s Wonderland: everything seemingly is, yet apparently isn’t, simultaneously. It is a world in which competition is lauded as the basic axiom and guiding principle, yet "too much" competition is condemned as "cutthroat." It is a world in which actions designed to limit competition are branded as criminal when taken by businessmen, yet praised as "enlightened" when initiated by the government. It is a world in which the law is so vague that businessmen have no way of knowing whether specific actions will be declared illegal until they hear the judge’s verdict—after the fact.”

Alan Greenspan

"Antitrust", essay at the National Association of Business Economists (25 September 1961); published in Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.
1950–60s

World , Law , Way

“I think Bill Clinton was the best Republican president we've had in a while.”

Alan Greenspan

As quoted in Meet The Press http://www.nbcnews.com/id/20941413/page/4#.VWY7_NJViko (23 September 2007).
2000s

Thinking

“If you want a simple model for predicting the unemployment rate in the United States over the next few years, here it is: It will be what Greenspan wants it to be, plus or minus a random error reflecting the fact that he is not quite God.”

Alan Greenspan

Slate, 6 February 1997; as cited by Orrin Judd at brothersjuddblog http://www.brothersjudd.com/blog/archives/014839.html, 14 August 2004

God , Error

“It hardly makes any difference who will be the next president. The world is governed by market forces.”

Alan Greenspan

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/29/city-of-london-desperate-gamble-china-vulnerable-economy when asked by the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger who, in his view, would be the next president of the United States
2000s

World , Making love

“Thus, the willingness of workers in recent years to trade off smaller increases in wages for greater job security seems to be reasonably well documented.”

Alan Greenspan

Testimony Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate February 26, 1997 https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/hh/1997/february/testimony.htm
1990s