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Behold The Face Of Central Banker Hubris
Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man
Behold The Face Of Central Banker Hubris

March 18, 1996. It was the height of the dot-com boom years. And gracing the cover of Fortune magazine was a photo of a rather smug looking Alan Greenspan, then Chairman of the US Federal Reserve.
The headline across the top-- "It's HIS economy, stupid". The inside story was entitled "In Greenspan We Trust".
And the article went on to suggest that, no matter WHO won the presidential election that year between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, Greenspan would still be running the economy. And handily.
This is a major testament to the state of our financial system. We award a tiny banking elite nearly totalitarian control over our money supply... and by extension, the economy.
We're just supposed to trust that they're good guys. Competent guys. That they know what they're doing.
Fast forward almost two decades. Long Term Capital Management. The NASDAQ bubble. The real estate bubble. The credit crunch. The mortgage crisis. The banking crisis. The sovereign debt crisis.
Now, this seemingly interminable series of emergencies is by no means the consequence of a single individual. But it's clear that Greenspan (and his successor Ben Bernanke) have had, by the very definition of their position, tremendous influence in getting us to this point.
Yet Greenspan's new book, The Map and the Territory, explains why he never saw any of this coming.
(You can read some of this for yourself if you're so inclined-- Foreign Affairs magazine just published an adapted excerpt from the book.)
Greenspan's explanation is as infuriating as it is arrogant.
He stops far short of accepting any responsibility, and merely states that the "conventional method of predicting macroeconomic developments. . . had failed when it was needed most, much to the chagrin of economists."
And of course, he melts his culpability away into the great masses of other economists, brashly stating that "virtually every economist and policymaker" completely missed the warning signs.
Yet as irritating as Greenspan's confession may be, there is no surer condemnation of this faux-science of economics than a former maestro himself pillorying its deficiencies.
Let's put it more bluntly. The guy who used to be in charge of the US economy openly admits that the 'science' they rely on to make decisions is fundamentally flawed.
The only thing these central bankers know how to do is print more money. Yet, as Greenspan tells us, they're completely ill-equipped to be making these decisions. Nor do they realize how severe the consequences will be.
John Maynard Keynes, the godfather of their economic models himself, once wrote:
"The process [of debasing the currency] engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."
Not one man in a million. Based on Greenspan's own admission, this includes central bankers as well.
If all the objective evidence, and even their own assessment, points to the inevitable conclusion that this system is broken, isn't it time to consider taking independent steps outside of this system to protect what you've worked for your entire life?
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All hail Mr. Yellen!
Indeed. We'll be at a buck-twenty with 9 zeros behind it PER MONTH by the end of his/her first year.
Greenspan... just trying to walk back his earlier statements that were tantamount to admission of guilt. All the regulators crawling all over the banks even before 2008 and they couldn't see it coming? Please. I'm not buying it. There are only two possible excuses: incompetence or corruption. Make them both punishable by public hanging and I will no longer care which way they plead.
sadly there is a paywall but if any canucks are out there and have access
Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz has dropped the bank’s tightening bias.
Poloz dubbed ‘Yellen of the North’ for loosening language
At last, the Bank of Canada is acknowledging what plenty of business people and more than a few analysts have been saying for the better part of two years. Canada’s economic engine is sputtering, that troubled U.S. and emerging export markets are in no position to provide a badly needed lift and that previous forecasts were simply too rosy.
Tell me he doesn't look like a blobfish?
http://i2.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article197211.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/blobfish-pic-caters-771402167-197211.jpg
Greenspan doesn't need to apologize because he's a mere human. And humans never apologize.
http://www.planbeconomics.com/2013/10/greenspan-i-dont-apologize-for-mis...
First Rule of Bankruptcy: When faced with certain Bankruptcy and subsequent Liquidation of assets, transfer all good assets and equity into a newly created entity, and hang the creditors with the toxic assets and debt of the old.
China’s Bretton coup d'état: http://twoshortplanksunplugged.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/chinas-bretton-coup-detat.html
You're on the right track watching the SDR, but the thrice abuse of metaphor is unnecessary.
Ha!! Pretty close. But, why must you insult the blobfish?
Asians will totally eat that; possibly raw. Greenspan? Not so much.
That policy statement the last nail in the pending Canadian economic disaster. They desperately needed to increase rates to kill the housing bubble. The "splat" will be epic.
and a lovely face it is Jack
Hughe's Bris
Canadian housing - if it is in a bubble - is beyond saving via monetary policy.
NoDebt: the Savings & Loan crisis was the first clearcut sign that real estate was a bubble and banking was in conspiracy with politicians and the Fed (can you say Neil Bush?)
Indeed! Yellen? What we are seeing is another victory for the Greenspan Party that has a death grip on the US financial system via their sole ownership of the Central Bank of the USA. This branch of government is not elected, is not responsible for a fair and balanced free market economic model. NO! There are given the freedom and right by law to run the financial system for the interest of a small group of bankers and their employees across upper management in the banking system.
American are slaves to banks and the banker class. Nobody can argue that point, in fact, nobody even bothers to try and argue that American Banks are not using the system they control to profit themselves and to strip 99% of America of it's savings, it's earnings and it's economic future. The fact that both US political parties support this system and defend it show that the corporate bribes they take does effect their votes and their party governance.
American are slaves to banks and the banker class. Nobody can argue that point
JAck: It's true, but merely one facet of the truth. American vanity and exceptionalism, embodied in the joking references to Greed Is Good, Shop Till Ya'All Drop, The Decade of Excess....etc also tell of another truth: most Americans were unwilling to do the hard work and heavy lifting that it would take to re-build a new and stronger economy. That is unfortunately one of teh hallmarks of a society once vital entering into decline. The "Can-Do Spirit" was gone and citizens voted overwhelingly for politicians that would maintain the status quo and oppose any kind of serious reform but support an ever stronger and more paranoid military/intelligence complex. The thoughts at the time of the fork in the road were that Americans had evolved beyond making anything and had evolved into brains -only service workers, and the capitalist/bean counters to the rest of the backward planet. Things turned out different than was hoped
No one argues because it is a fundamental aspect of capitalism. As much as people are loathe to accept culpability, profiteering is what is celebrated by most people, mostly brainwashed people, and those doing the profiting. It is pretty tough to challenge those who profit the most, when your own objective is to be like them, only you're not.
The reason so many people in business can be so unethical, is as the mantra goes, there is no room for morality in business - they mean capitalism.
We're not watching the death of capitalism, we're watching the death grip of capitalism. People can't seem to recognize the difference. When Rockefeller was destroying all of the other oil producers, he was being a capitalist. He had them by the balls. Same way the bankers have us by the balls. To imagine a more noble form of capitalism is naive. When was there a "fair" economy?How can you describe fair when profit is the only imperative?
The other irony, or I can't believe you can say that, is people will say that it's impossible to control the global markets, that no one can control the economy, that the reason free market capitalism is so necessary is because of the price discovery mechanism, but then the same people will complain that there are people who are warping / distorting the market, killing free market capitalism. So it can be controlled? Like the Libor scandal / IMF / BIS / WTO / FED / bubbles / crashes / gold price suppression / bitcoin collapse / boom doom and gloom? Geezus... people, there is no economy, you / we've all been had. And the main criticisms of economics are laughable. They are not trying to explain the mechanics of our social exchange. They are describing the world according to their model of theft.The past 5 years should be proof to everyone that someone can control the economy and they have been controlling the economy for a very long time.
It is interesting that when (not just) you argue that the control is with the bankers, you also reference Congress but effectively give them a pass, in the context of Control.
Congress could shut the Fed down in an instant -- that is the Control point.
That they are corrupt and defunct does not change that fact.
That We refuse to acknowledge that fact -- that is where the pissing in the wind and lost last chances come in.
So all we need to do is find a few hundred good men (or women!), get them duly elected, get the Feds charter revoked, end fractional reserve banking. Right.
(difficult to win a shouting contest with people who can print megaphones)
Or perhaps a new constitutional convention originated at the state level (RTFM!) would have a better chance at success?
(but these people can't even figure out they're being hoodwinked every four years)
Or just a campaign against the bankers themselves, not to "occupy", but to inform people enough that they can defend themselves from these behemoth leeches, nulling their influence from the bottom up?
(you assume they don't want to be as financially raped as the joneses)
Or just defend you and yours and hope others have the good sense to do the same?
(hopeless, unless you've networked with enough others to matter)
Perhaps some combination of all of the above.
(or not)
until the middle class in America finally wakes up to the fact that Central Banks in control, is nothing more then socialism run by bankers, as opposed to socialism run by the military, nothing is going to change!!!
Until then, it's BTFD to the moon, or PM and ammo........ Or do both!!
Deuteronomy 32:35
"Vengeance is mine, says the LORD..."
And CAPs too, apparently.
Long Obsolete Reactionary Dogma.
Just die Greenspan
Yes indeed, the lord is a vengenful mother fucker.
"The cheetohs are mine too, sayeth the Lord...so totally don't eat those, or you shall feel my wrath for generations."
(why you wouldn't want God as a roommate)
There is of course one common theme; on each and every occasion the insiders bought the dip, and the sheeple got mugged.
But of course you state the obvious.
"the last duty of a central banker is to tell the public the truth.". Alan Blinder
Credulous sheeple are to be fleeced.
That is not the face of "Hubris". That is just plain old "Bris".
Fate the Magnificent
"Push the Button, Max"
Don't wiggle, you're distracting the Mohel.
Kermit the Frog with horns, bifurcated tongue and a pitchfork.
I was thinking that picture looks like my dick after sex
lol. make sure she doesn't see it after sex, or there won't be a next time.
More like "he".
Some great points in this piece.
Many of our problems date to Greenspan's panic reaction in 2001 to the 911 attacks.
You really can go further back. Events may accelerate the course but the end does not change.
and 911 was a cover up, literally buried under a million tons of wtc ruble, of the crimes of the previous 50 years...
Well. If we can secretly monetize two trillion in treasury bonds and make the evidence go poof then all of us won to a certain extent. All of us Mericans, that is. We would have been net way ahead if it werent for the cost of those two pesky wars.
yeah, well- "never let a good crisis go to waste" ... and on to the next crime wave.
No.
Who do you believe in this amoral world?
Don't want to parse but immoral.They know damn well
what they are doing is wrong.They just DGAS.
You are not parsing, you are asserting. I would continue to assert for myself, that the laws of physics do not discriminate right from wrong, thus the world is inherently amoral with little pockets of human trust systems that can be further defined, within the subcontext of themselves, as moral or immoral. Snowflakes have no morality. They can't be trusted.
I completely agree.
"At the beginning of last decade, when the towers of the World Trade Center collapsed during 9/11 attacks, the market suffered the biggest drop in history. Two weeks later, the “Enron” scandal revealed, and quickly became clear, that this was just the tip of the iceberg of a massive fraud from the corporations. Since the early 90s, many major companies were presenting fake profits, hiding their debts, with the help of the largest accounting firms. The paradox is that in the mid 90s, Greenspan had already realized that something was wrong with the economy, but ultimately convinced himself that computers were increasing the productivity in novel ways, too new to be detected in the data."
http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2012/07/the-illusion-of-self-regulati...
Yogi Berra is a lot smarter than Greenspan
"in theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there always is."
"Damn humans arent doing what I expect them to do," says a perplexed Greenspan lol
And the soon to arrive currency crisis.
Greenspahhu, Yellenhu, Bernankhu AKBAR !
"We're just supposed to trust that they're good guys. Competent guys. That they know what they're doing."
It has nothing to do with trust. The bankers own the country which is why the head of the Federal Reserve (a cartel of private banks) remains even when a politicians wearing a different Team color from the last one comes into office.
Two Parties playing for the same team. Obama kept the Bush economic team on the job after winning an election in which he promised hope and CHANGE. Yet, a large number of people presist in claims that Obama is a socialist. Very odd! Then we see income disparity pushing high income earner's incomes to record level. No matter, "Obama is a socialist". Corporate profits make all time highs, while tax laws allow then to reduce their tax liabilities to all time lows. But still the same chatter "Obama is a socialist. Bank bailouts perfected under Bush were kept in place and the bailout liabilites passed onto the public. While the refrain "Obama is a socialist went on. The Federal Reserve got no pressure from Obama to change it's giant wealth transfer, from bottom to top, machine QE. Never mind "Obama is a socialist.
The point I am making is The supposed socialist president has presided over a policy that favors in every way imaginable the Bankers, Banks, Hedge Funds, inherited wealthy, the elite 1% who hold most equites, and others in the top income brackets. Their taxes are lower than in over 60 years, their incomes absorb all income growth due to productivity gains, they are in fact at a point of income disparity not seen since the 1920's and under Obama this income is growing at the fastest pace in modern history. That the president responsible for this can, with a straight face, be called a true socialist, shows you that both parties are the same, and the giant lie machine is busy trying to make people believe there is a difference, and that under Obama, corporations and the eltie wealthy are being robbed of their incomes and profits. My god, some people are fucking blind! Do they not GET IT???
Right on.................but dont tell freddie
He is a statist socialist. The authoritarian kind that feels our "betters" should rule us. This includes the banking aristocracy and old money families which work hand in hand with useful idiots of the socialist persuasion to make sure all sheep are fed and watered. The shee are content but know not that they are to be fleeced.
Socialism in alliance with moneyed interests is thefascist model. It built great roads though.
Not too many people want to admit Bush was also a socialist.
Shrub was a frat boy useful idiot who was easily controlled because of his pedigree. He reminds me of the alien frat boys (dude my dad owns a dealership) on the cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force. It is puppeteers that are the real problem. They are all Marxists at the end of the day. The right is primarily Fascist in their approach while the left is primarily Socialist in their approach. It is the illusion of choice Carlin used to like to talk about.
They all have to be socialists. WTF are they going to do with all that absolutely useless human capital besides just keep them in the corral and feed them?
He WAS NOT!!! He had a 'R' next to his name. You guys make it sound like they're the same party.
"Not too many people want to admit Bush was also a socialist."
Bullshit. I point out that pill-pandering hypocritical putz and Medicare Part D all the time; not to mention his dedicated work with indigent military contractors.
"My god, some people are fucking blind! Do they not GET IT???"
They go with the easiest answer. Their hate masks stupidity and enables the banksters to make sure they are rewarded for their stupidity.
Well said.
By evil design, people are incomprehensibly lazy and stupid. We are no longer a nation of immigrants striving for a better life for ourselves and our families. We are simply looking to get by.
The banksters/cronies/political hacks/talk radio-tv bullshitters have us convinced the world we live in is democrats vs republicans.
In reality, 99% of this nation has been beaten, robbed, and forcibly raped by a cosortium of greedy, heartless, motherfuckers.
Brings me back to an old favorite.
"That Old Wheel"
(Johnny Cash with Hank Williams Jr.)
That old wheel is gonna roll around once more
When it does it will even up the score
Don’t be weak: as they sew, they will reap
Turn the other cheek and don’t give in
That old wheel will roll around again
When love is gone and the one you thought would stay
Does you wrong, and you’re left alone to pay
The price is high
But somehow you’ll survive, don’t give in
That old wheel will roll around again
There’ll be times, hard to control
And you’ll find you’ll hurt down in your soul
There’ll be those who’ll be glad to see you down
But don’t give in, that old wheel will roll around again
Roll around, around, again, again
Behold...the Beak
You do expect to see the old fart picking away at Ayn's carcass or something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdROQ3zYwl0
Instead of shutting up and silently contemplating the mess and misery he has helped cause, the man returns on stage with another book. Utterly disgraceful.
A book deal and speaking fees are thinly disguised payoffs.
This fucking A-hole is the Ace of spades of world wide terrorists.
Sad fact of the matter is he won the war; we got slaughtered.
He got caught up in Randian script that told him to pursue his own happiness. Sadly he did not have second thoughts about hurting others in the process.
The bastard found great pleasure in fucking us up really bad .
It was all about self-importance....
Yoda: May the Farce be with you.
I like Denninger's appelation: Mr. Magoo.
The only "science" involved with Greenspan and the other central banking cronies is that they provide a PhD academic face to a non-government entity tasked with robbing generations of citizens and debasing their lives along with the currency for the sake of parasitic bankers.
What's more repulsive?
Andrea Mitchell has sex with him.
He has sex with Andrea Mitchell.
What's more repulsive?
Sex with Andrea or sex with The Wookie?
The sheeple want to know!
BEHOLD! The South end of a Northbound Horse! All Hail the Grasshole!
A face in need of a bullet...
I'm no biologist, but that right there is the face of a rodent. A Shrew or a Mole perhaps, those dead little eyes gives it away.
My bad, turns out Moles and Shrews are not rodents at all....so i'm gonna go out on limb here and say he's as a mongoloid rat.
Are we talking about Greenspan or the alleged blobfish?
The FED is an abomination. The U.S.A. is run by greedy, self serving, corrupt megalomaniacs that have seized control over every aspect of human existence. The whole world is bursting at the seams thanks wholly to the evils of a mere handful of men, unwittingly backed by the most apathetic and disgraceful representatives of the human species to ever populate the planet. Sure, Greenspan is an evil prick, but this shit could have been dealt with on numerous occasions, by many in positions to do so peacefully.......
The future is bright for freedom
Drop out. Act and think local. Barter.
We are at the cusp of a maker society. Let's see them tax the voluntary and nonmonetary exchange between individuals. The future is bright for freedom as the state whithers away as fewer and fewer people are in the taxable work force.
Agreed 100%.......Our freedom is not subject to the permissions of a corrupt and failed Nanny State, or any kind of government for that matter.......
I try to live a peaceful life and in my heart I know all human life is precious, but every-time I see this little goblin's face I want to smash it in with a baseball bat until it is an unidentifiable mass of jelly.
THE TRIBE HAS SPOKEN !!!!!
Who are the tribe? Snicker snicker. God's chosen people? Lol.
Can I say that on zero hedge or will it get me banned?
It would be kinda cool to believe in a god that plays racial favorites and authorizes ethnic cleansing and the capturing and fucking of young virgins from the nonfavored tribe.
After all. Moses knew all women are pink inside and inherently equal.
If you have not seen this it is worth the watch.........Dr. Ben Carson.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/2774819459001/is-the-government-getting-too-p...
Hey Tyler,
Who ELSE did these warnings?
http://www.showrealhist.com/3warnsRD.html
Goldman, harvard, Yale, Wharton, Chicago, berkeley, ... ANY WHO ELSE???
Alan Greenspan is the Darth Veder of economics.
Seems more Gomer Pile to me.
i dont even trust myself, so why the fuck would i ever trust any of these scumbags
Looks more like the face of Gollum.
Big deal. One currency dies another is born....happens all the time.
Lots of hate but still no concrete solutions.
And you guys have been doing this for years, I've been watching. The couch is too comfortable and soon it will be too cold(45°F).
Over.
So, what's your plan Gollum?
Lead us to Mordor maybe?
ROB has got a point though. I have been thinking about this one for some time now: we all have a pretty good idea of what has gone wrong throughout these past decades, but the frightening bit is there does not seem a comprehensive plan B, something that would actually come in very handy if our western economies would suddenly implode (no longer a mere theoretical possibility, I'm afraid). And by comprehensive I mean really comprehensive, as in an alternative economic system that - while taking the continuous growth logic out of the equation - would actually work for us. Sure, there are proposals and partial solutions: a new gold standard, more "local" instead of "global"... But an alternative system that would feed 7 billion and keep 'm as happy and free as possibe? Tricky.
Plan B is civil war in America.
Kill all the gun owners, preppers, constitutionalists, and liberty minded people.
Implement the North American Union and disappear the US Constitution and the 50 states.
If they have to kill a hundred million people plus, so be it.
They can always import a new population when its all over.
I thought that was still part of plan A........
Plan A is to steal everyone's wealth anyway imaginable.
Plan B is to eliminate all the useless eaters whose wealth was just stolen.
Plan C is to install a more placid sheeple that won't bleat when sheared.
Hey Evil, the latest list from das Homeland Security had your list (gun owners, preppers, constitutionalists, and liberty minded people) just after evangelical Christians, Buddhists, and then Baptists.
Buddhist?? Really??? Government overthrow by evoking the word "OM" just like the Knights warded off those they disliked by saying "NI" - yep, now I get it.
The problem with a civil war theory is that a civil war is between countrymen. If the opponent holds both a US passport and an Israeli passport is it a civil war?
You mean an Indonesian passport and a Hawaiian birth certificate.
So Obama is the root cause here?
Obama's a root alright.
As to the cause?
Obama didn't invent the world of corruption, he just learned to play the game rather well, as did all of his predecessors.
Have you cleared your comment with legal? Our masters do not like to be talked about in a non affectionate manner.
Comprehensive planning is the problem. People need to plan their own shit and leave others alone.
rot in hell greedscum
Just and benign Greenspan. He is soley responsible for creating more wealth than anyone else that has ever lived. If you didn't get rich in the 1990's you are too retarded to live. He is a great man.
lol. Can't decide if you're employing horatian or juvenalian satire. Which begs the eternal question: are these fuckers more clowns or devils?
Can't decide from that picture. He seems excessively happy. Did he just get done spooging Brooksley Born up the wazoo?
Lol. Everybody gets rich in the largest credit expansion the world has ever seen.
The natural consequence of said credit expansion is going to be a real bitch. Good luck holding on to it. Sadly like many others here, my poor boating skills lost me a fortune years ago.
Yeah, everybody got rich in the 90's and now the lying greedy psychopathic Wall Street and District of Criminals scumbags are doing everything in their power to steal it back.
You seem to have a very broken definition of the term 'wealth', which makes sense, given that you have no ethical compass and appear to be lacking a forebrain as well.
You are the Leroy Jenkins of finance and deserve everything that's coming for you.
The Maestro of Debt. FUCK GREENSPAN
Please Rand Paul, filibuster Yellen's nomination and educate the American people, or at least other Senators, about the power the people have given to unelected citizens under the control of the Banks. Tell them how we have allowed the fox guard the henhouse!
Can he "educate" without sounding like an easily marginalized crank?
May as well pray to Rick James to straighten out them hoes.
Greedscam will reside in Jewish Sheol for all eternity, constantly wringing his hands and wondering why he did not foresee the bubbles he created (hint: he looked away for mammon).
is this old rat faced banker jewish?
just askin
asking if a former fed hed is a joo banker is like asking if the pope is catholic
Or if a bear shiites in the woods.
just add clown makeup
Holloween approacheth.
The monsters are always out.
Looks like Greenspan is dipping some long-cut in that pic. Probably cherry Skoal.
I won't spoil it with any detail, but the chapter entitled "A Lesson in Empathy; Andrea Straps it On" is terrific.
East German Bankers
Greenspan's mouth looks like a sphincter. The rest of his head are the butt cheeks.
"much to the chagrin of economists"
Vast numbers of peoples lives have been altered, on generational scales. Many people have lost everything, included marriages, children, homes, jobs, and some, even their lives. And not just the very public self immolations in Tunisia and D.C.
there are even people incarcerated as a direct result of this garbage. With the exception of Bernie Madoff, no one who created this scam is suffering any pain. Unless "chagrin" means "pain" to economists.
Behold..... Mr Magoo.
Karl Marx said that when it's all over the state will wither and die. After many years of death and destruction.
The capitalist crisis Marx predicted is happening right before our eyes.
Ain't that just wonderful?
Central bankers not omnipotent? not omniscient? HERETIC! SEIZE HIM IMMEDIATELY!
http://youtu.be/q4aPdZI4ovg
Hopefully Greenspan get's egged on Halloween. He deserves worse than that.
Now this is the one cunt I would love to hang up by his balls
My first thought when Yelen was appointed was about the old corporate habit of putting a woman at the top of a sinking company.....
That is the quintessense of the thing that calls its ken Anglosaxon bankers. Somehow I think he will find it hard to prove his English roots.
Who put the con in economics?
Who put the ram in the ramalama ding dong?
Why do fools fall in love?
Why is there a picture of an old dick on this page?
Rememeber when he was called "The Maestro" (gag) after a sycophantic book of the same name?