Greenspan pleads the fifth!

Alan Greenspan looked older and haggard when he appeared before the Senate banking committee yesterday [23 October 2008]. Sybilline formulae bubbled from his lips as usual, but in trying to explain his role in the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme meltdown, he pleaded not only not guilty, but flawed in his grasp of the markets. Under Clinton, he was held on a firm leash as guru of the US Fed; under Herr Bush, he exploded in exuberence, letting the free market do its worst as we now know; ignorning the headlong disaster which we are now all too familiar with. For Greenspan who sat at the feet of the ultimate free marketeer Ayn Rand and fluffed up the sails of Milton Friedman, the market not only could do no wrong, but it was self correcting like Adam Smith's invisible third finger would steady the free market capitalist ship from listing too far one way or the other. Brown noser of the first water, he left Herr Bush do his damnest to explode government spending and let his croneys and court favourites feed at the public's trough, whilst John Q and Jane Q Public shouldered higher taxes and fell into debt fooled as they were by the flashing tackiness of consumerism. Il Signor Greenspan pleaded that no one could foresee the recession, calling it a one time tsuname in a century. Well, sorry old cock, many did and screamed it from the roof tops, but times were so good no one wanted to listen to us Cassandras. And now it's payback time, and Greenspan is like the 3 monkeys rolled up into one, he saw no evil, spoke no evil, heard no evil. Yet, he is at the root and branch of the crisis. He's no honour; he won't fall on his sword; he's a coward; and now all fingers are pointing at him as the town leper. But, he cares not a whit. Il Signor Greenspan will withdraw into his cozy cocoon, rocked to his final resting place on the tunes of jazz. The bum is already king of the dust heap!