Alan Greenspan: Market

“An area in which more rather than less government involvement is needed, in my judgment, is the rooting out of fraud. It is the bane of any market system.”

Alan Greenspan

Source: 2000s, The Age of Turbulence (2008), Chapter Nineteen, "Globalization and Regulation", p. 375.

Fraud

“A decline in the national housing price level would need to be substantial to trigger a significant rise in foreclosures, because the vast majority of homeowners have built up substantial equity in their homes despite large mortgage-market financed withdrawals of home equity in recent years.”

Alan Greenspan

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

Home , Housing

“The resolution of our current account deficit and household debt burdens does not strike me as overly worrisome, but that is certainly not the case for our fiscal deficit, which, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will rise significantly as the baby boomers start to retire in 2008. Our fiscal prospects are, in my judgment, a significant obstacle to long-term stability because the budget deficit is not readily subject to correction by market forces that stabilize other imbalances.”

Alan Greenspan

March 10, 2005 http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2005/20050310/default.htm.
2000s

Baby

“Intensive research in recent years into the sources of economic growth among both developing and developed nations generally point to a number of important factors: the state of knowledge and skill of a population; the degree of control over indigenous natural resources; the quality of a country's legal system, particularly a strong commitment to a rule of law and protection of property rights; and yes, the extent of a country's openness to trade with the rest of the world. For the United States, arguably the most important factor is the type of rule of law under which economic activity takes place. When asked abroad why the United States has become the most prosperous large economy in the world, I respond, with only mild exaggeration, that our forefathers wrote a constitution and set in motion a system of laws that protects individual rights, especially the right to own property. Nonetheless, the degree of state protection is sometimes in dispute. But by and large, secure property rights are almost universally accepted by Americans as a critical pillar of our economy. While the right of property in the abstract is generally uncontested in all societies embracing democratic market capitalism, different degrees of property protection do apparently foster different economic incentives and outcomes.”

Alan Greenspan

Alan Greenspan (2004) The critical role of education in the nation's economy.
2000s

World , Law , Nature , Knowledge

“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

Home , Appearance

“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.

“[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

Home

“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

People , Support

“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