Greenspan Expressing Doubts re Nonsensical Ayn Rand Philosophy

By: EW News Desk Team   Date: 22 March 2010

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EW News Desk Team

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22 March 2010

One of the things you've got to say for Alan Greenspan is that he has at least a modicum of intellectual honesty. Despite the ghastliness that started in Black September 2008, most free-market fundamentalists have continued to hold to, if not intensity, their commitment to their "faith-based" economic views.

One of the things you've got to say for Alan Greenspan is that he has at least a modicum of intellectual honesty. Despite the ghastliness that started in Black September 2008, most free-market fundamentalists have continued to hold to, if not intensity, their commitment to their "faith-based" economic views. But Greenspan, first in Congressional testimony in the immediate aftermath of the meltdown, and more recently here, has begun to admit that such a belief system may be more "faith" than "science". Better late than never, I guess ;-):

After more than six decades as a skeptic of big government, the former Federal Reserve chairman, now 84, is gingerly suggesting that perhaps regulators should help rein in giant financial institutions by requiring them to hold more capital.

Mr. Greenspan, once celebrated as the “maestro” of economic policy, has seen his reputation dim after failing to avert the credit bubble that nearly brought down the financial system. Now, in a 48-page paper that is by turns analytical and apologetic, he is calling for a degree of greater banking regulation in several areas.

The report is by no means a mea culpa. But in his customarily sober language, Mr. Greenspan, who has long argued that the market is often a more effective regulator than the government, has now adopted a more expansive view of the proper role of the state.

 


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