Legal Commentary

Is it Greenspan's fault?

Economists from across the ideological spectrum have criticized his decision to let the nation?s real estate market continue to boom with cheap credit, courtesy of low interest rates, rather than snuffing out price increases with higher rates. Others have criticized Mr. Greenspan for not disciplining institutions that lent indiscriminately.

But whatever history ends up saying about those decisions, Mr. Greenspan?s legacy may ultimately rest on a more deeply embedded and much less scrutinized phenomenon: the spectacular boom and calamitous bust in derivatives trading....

?It seems superfluous to constrain trading in some of the newer derivatives and other innovative financial contracts of the past decade,? Mr. Greenspan [wrote in his memoir "The Age of Turbulence"]. ?The worst have failed; investors no longer fund them and are not likely to in the future.?...

?In a market system based on trust, reputation has a significant economic value,? Mr. Greenspan [said in a speech]. ?I am therefore distressed at how far we have let concerns for reputation slip in recent years.?

As the long-serving chairman of the Fed, the nation?s most powerful economic policy maker, Mr. Greenspan preached the transcendent, wealth-creating powers of the market.

A professed libertarian, he counted among his formative influences the novelist Ayn Rand, who portrayed collective power as an evil force set against the enlightened self-interest of individuals. In turn, he showed a resolute faith that those participating in financial markets would act responsibly.

Full post as published by Althouse on October 11, 2008 (boomark / email).