I am wondering if there is anyone else out there currently reading Greenspan's "The Age of Turbulence". This guy is really hard to figure out. He seems to be an embodiment of so many contradictions, yet you must think he is intelligent enough to see them? Here is a good example: On p141 after discussing the fall of the Berlin Wall and Communism, he goes on to say: "Nonetheless, the verdict on central planning has been rendered, and it is unequivocally negative." How does he not see the role of the Fed as central planning as well? If he is such a lover of free markets, as he espouses throughout, how can he not see a market solution to money and interest rates?
I sometimes think, that beeing a full-time free market lover means, that somebody didn't do his job in brainwashing me good enough. I come to that conclusion whenever I talk with someone pretty intelligent talking complete nonsense, and failing to admit it. Maybe somebody did a really excellent job on Alan? But, holding on to that same logic, maybe it's just someone other doing a really good job on us;)
Bah, long live Feyerabend.
I would like to think that at the end of the day Greenspan knew Austrian economics was economics. But.... does Bernanke? Its scary to think that Bernanke actually believes neo-classical economics and fails to see it for the voodoo it is.
Of course he's hard to figure out. He didn't and doesn't know what he's doing. He failed at his own two private firms, so the government hired him. Then he kept his finger on the printing press. He's a complete fool.
The "Maestro" was anything but. He is a complete fool, but the bigger fools are the idiotic Congressmen (except Ron Paul) and the financial press who thought (and some still do) he was the economic equivalent of Jesus Christ. Now Bernanke is following in the Lord's footsteps, as if anyone is surprised by that. Does anyone honestly think he would have followed Paul Volcker's lead and raised rates?