Alan Greenspan is out pitching his news book. We explained the miracle of revisionist history and questioned the sanity of anyone buying this 'guide to economic forecasting' earlier in the week [5], but in his appearance this morning on CNBC, the "maestro" did a great job explaining just how flawed his own logic was (without our help).
Flip-flopping from some rational efficient market based economic prognostication to the human nature based entirely non-random cyclical and feedback-loop engaging reality, he explains (sadly reflective of the current clairvoyance of Jim Bullard) that, speaking for himself and his FOMC colleagues, "all of us knew there was a bubble," though failing to admit to being the progenitor, "but we badly missed the timing."
Perhaps summing up the mantra of his ilk better than any other sentence, Greenspan concludes, "a bubble in and of itself does not give you a crisis..."adding, during a later Bloomberg TV clip, "I missed certain forecasts, you don’t apologize for that. Do you? I don’t. We are not omniscient. I am a human being."
Perhaps not, but with every muppet leveraged to the tick on the Russell 2000, we suspect he'll reject that thesis once again in the future...
Must watch (brief clip) for insight into just how sociopathic our central bankers have become..
Doing the rounds, Greenspan later dropped this little beauty on Bloomberg TV...
“I am in the business where, Harry Truman once said, ‘If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen’… I apologize for something I did wrong, and I do apologize. I don’t apologize…I was doing the best I can.
The arguments, some of which are quite accurate is I missed certain forecasts, you don’t apologize for that. Do you? I don’t. We are not omniscient. I am a human being. I cannot see beyond the horizon any more than anyone else can.
Now to apologize for not being Superman, I just refuse to do that because that never entered my mind."
Perhaps some 'honesty' like that during your reign would have helped temper the bubbles you created...