I think Greenspan let cat out of the bag on SS.

[FloridaPat]

He is now for private accounts because then the government wouldn't be able to get it's hands on it like it does with the current SS money.

Is he predicting a government default on all the trillions they've already taken and spent?

What crap this guy has turned into. You can almost see Bush talking out of Greenspan's mouth - but Bush can't talk without looking like an idiot.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. I believe that's the administration's plan...default on the bonds.

[Alpharetta]

3. Didn't Nixon do something like that?

Didn't he allow a sudden devaluation of the dollar as we went off the gold standard?

My recollection is it caused a huge shock to our overseas lenders because it was a way of devaluing our debt to them. And it caused an international crisis of confidence in the US dollar.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[hedda_foil]

7. You bet Nixon did! The result was massive "stagflation."

Factories closed, plants left the industrialized, unionized North and moved to the "sun belt" cities like Atlanta. Interest rates were in the high teens and OPEC put a stranglehold on oil supply and prices. That's why Carter had such an incredibly hard time trying to get the economy on track, and why people bought Reagan's load of crap about what had happened to America. The media NEVER mentioned the very idea that the situation was caused directly by Nixon's fiscal policy maneuver. The two were NOT CONNECTED as far as most Americans were concerned.

[CWebster]

2. With Enron style accounting

What money?

[elehhhhna]

4. SO we have to destroy SS to save it from itsself? WTF?

Oh, the senility!

[ArkDem]

5. Intelligent, thoughtful and well written post.

[flordehinojos]

6. i was watching a dialogue last night on the House Floor betweeen

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Kendrick Meeks and Congressman Ryan... Wasserman Schultz told the story that in some committee where Greeenspan was testifying not too long ago, one of the democratic members of the committee asked Greenspan if he would have voted in favor of social security back in 1935 when social security was first passed if he had been a member of congress back then. GREENSPAN ANSWERED, "I CAN'T COMMENT ON THAT"!...(TELLING, HUM?)