Greenspan Could Have Prevented The SupPrime Crisis

[dtotire]

From this article, the subprime crisis could have been prevented. Why didn't the Fed prevent it?


In 2001, a senior Treasury official, Sheila C. Bair, tried to persuade subprime lenders to adopt a code of “best practices” and to let outside monitors verify their compliance. None of the lenders would agree to the monitors, and many rejected the code itself. Even those who did adopt those practices, Ms. Bair recalled recently, soon let them slip.
And leaders of a housing advocacy group in California, meeting with Mr. Greenspan in 2004, warned that deception was increasing and unscrupulous practices were spreading.
John C. Gamboa and Robert L. Gnaizda of the Greenlining Institute implored Mr. Greenspan to use his bully pulpit and press for a voluntary code of conduct.
“He never gave us a good reason, but he didn’t want to do it,” Mr. Gnaizda said last week. “He just wasn’t interested.”





http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/business/18subprime.html?hp

[spanone]

1. he was holding water for the 'robust' bu$h* economy.

[Lost4words]

2. I watched Greenpuke flip 180% after a meeting with dimson!

on tax cuts. Greenspan does whats good for Greenspan. He is no hero IMHO

[BlueManDude]

3. How about when he suggested people get ARMs when fixed rates were low

I remember hearing his testimony to congress, what 3 or 4 years ago and thinking - what is this guy, crazy?

Greenspan is a tool of larger interests. The fact that he's been the toast of DC for 15 years (and continues to be) is a testiment to our broken political culture.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. A voluntary code of conduct on Wall Street? Gimme a...

break here. Such a thing ain't gonna happen no matter who begs for it.

And beg it would be-- the Chairman of the Fed whining to Wall Street and the banks over lending practioces it has little regulatory authority over. I doubt Greenspan would stoop to that.

[begin_within]

5. Wall Street runs on two principles only

Fear and greed.

[SergeyDovlatov]

6. greenspan contributed to subprime crisis by starting a bubble

Bernanke just tried to sustain it with artifically low interest rates.