Kevin L
CEO, Didit, We-Care.com, DNB.PowerProfiles.com, SEMPO BOD, Author "Truth About Pay-Per-Click Search Advertising"
WSJ says Greenspan delivers the Republicans a withering critique in his memoir. Will you buy it?
Greenspan's book looks like a best seller. The WSJ reports that Greenspan says the republicans deserved to lose because they let spending get out of control. Looks like a good read for both Republicans or Democrats.
Will you be buying the book?
If so, would you be willing to test a theory on Amazon's systems with me?
Good Answers (27)
I'll find it at the library. ;o)
Les M
Local Marketing Specialist ►Social Media Consultant ►Euntrepenuer ► Invitations welcome◄ | LION | Toplinked.c
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What's the test ?
The Republicans deserve a withering critique. The party of fiscal conservatism is no such thing in reality. They are a bad or worse than the Democrats when it comes to spending. Whatever Greenspan chooses to say about them is probably just and right on target.
You have to remember that Greenspan was always a man who chose his words carefully so if he has a few choice words to say about the Republicans it's probably well worth the headline it will get.
Possibly, but only if its substantive. Otherwise, have very little interest in what Greenspan has to say.
no.
Ed H
Owner, Metal Age Consulting LLC / Independent IT Consultant, (Open Networker ed@isaedge.com)
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If he's ripping on the Republicans then perhaps it's worth dropping some cash on it. Republicans can't get anything right, and haven't since Reagan, and I like that a guy with credibility like Greenspan shares the facts with us.
Jamie H
Vice President - Corporate Marketing at Regions Financial Corp.
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I don't recognize anything "Repubican" abou the current administration or the previous congressional leadership. My family has been in the Republican party since the days of Lincoln, and my grandfather was very involved in Republican politics in Pennsylvania. I've often that that he must be spinning in his grave, watching the current so-called "Republicans" spending money like drunken sailors, participating in nation-building, and growing the federal governent at a record pace. I believe in the traditional Republican values of fiscal responsibility and social libertarianism. These are the Republican values that the current power structure completely ignores.
I may or may not buy Greenspan's book. But I agree with him that this administration deserves every bit of criticism it gets.
Greenspan spanking the Republicans is good news. There is no one left in their corner except for the disloyal Christian Right and the sooner someone takes that bull by the horns the better.
However ... the bursting of our current housing bubble is going to drag our standard of living back to about 1940 and that stuff can be neatly laid on Greenspan's doorstep, as he helped provide the conditions for the internet stock bubble as well as the preconditions for the current mess.
yes I'll test it
hmm, interesting, maybe I'll wait for the audio book.
Considering that Greenspan's recent past of "cut interest rates to stimulate the economy" coupled with the Bush / Republican "cut taxes, spend more and just charge it" fiscal policies are now dragging this country into possible financial oblivion... No.
I might check it out at the library though. I'm sure it will be under the fiction / fantasy listings...
Links:
- http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/488
- http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/au/2007/0717.html
- http://www.thomaspalley.com/docs/articles/selected/Legacy%20of%20Greenspan....
Clarification added September 15, 2007:
Not to mention the billions of dollars spent (or shall we say "borrowed") to "blow up, democratize and rebuild" Iraq to the detriment of our American economy, military, infrastructure and world status as a superpower.
Maurizio P
Director at S&I Savings and Investments Ltd.
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I'm surprised. If this is a cross-section of American society, then there is hope.
Finally, the Americans are opening their eyes to what the worst President of United States since Herbert Hoover has brought the once mightiest country in the world, the once leaders of the Western World, the once ideal place of freedom everyone looked to for innovation and new, refreshing ideas.
Well, I guess, there is always hope...after Hoover we had F.D.R. but please. please, the next time a President of United States tells you people he has a God inspired mission to accomplish...just drop him.
I guess Greenspan has his words to spend against the fiscal irresponsibility of this administration, who detaxed the rich and indebted the poor to death...but Alan Greenspan has sowed the seeds of what's happening, with the easy money policy...
Clarification added September 15, 2007:
Will just clarify that I'm not scared by the next Christian President of U.S., or jew or Islam's next President of U.S.
What scares me is when religion is mixed with politics. On paper. all religions are good...very good, peace for the mind, gives you a purpose, all that you want to find in a religion, as we n NZ say, is good on ya mate!!
But when this overlaps in politics...you have the most blind fanatics of all kind and brand take over, and common sense ceases.
A man brought up to take decisions listening to all the possible opinions and then decide along his conscience, and with a conscience raised in a family who didn't need Bibles or Korans to teach the good from bad and the decent and just from unjust...that is my choce.
But a man who has a Mission from God to fulfill....mate that scares me! He won't listen to anyone, except his firebrand of fanaticism and his own interpretation of the Holy Book of turn.
Because God is with Him ! Exactly what was written on the Nazis soldiers belts..God is with Us.
I'm not scared by a Christian, a Jew, an Islam's follower...by privately religious persons.
I'm scared by Conservative Christians, or Liberal Jews, or Fundamentalist Islam...because people who consider anything written by a prophet of sort between 3,000 to 1,000 years ago a key to modern politics and reach power....then dear god, whenever you are and if you can help us.
Because THEN, we all need help.
Ray M
Energy expert, educator, award winning sculptor
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Possibly, what's the test?
Jef L
copywriter/creative director at Brainchild Creative
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What do you have in min for the Amazon test?
Brian N
Interactive Marketing Strategist and Consultant
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Hi Kevin,
I don't have any plans to buy the book. The buzz surrounding the book is linked directly to the economic problems we're now experiencing. I don't believe Mr. Greenspan should profit, as he is due at least some blame for the situation, depending on your point of view. When Greenspan talked, the country (and world) listened; his policy moves and comments helped fuel the housing bubble and credit crunch we're now dealing with. Though Mr. Greenspan undoubtedly made some good decisions during his tenure at the Fed, I think his legacy will be the mess he left behind.
Greenspan was an utter and complete enabler. Do you think he could not see how the lowest of lowest interest rates would cause a housing bubble? He provided explicit coverage for Bush tax cuts even when it was obvious that it was less about fiscal responsibility and more about helping (as Bush called it himself) his "base." Once this deficit situation finally hits the U.S. like a load of bricks (thanks baby boomers for mortgaging the next generation), Greenspan and Bush will be rightly vilified.
Both parties are just as bad as the other. Party politics is a form of tribal hatred and nothing good comes of it. Republican, Democrat, or Mickey Mouse, they're all going to waste our tax dollars and set bad public policy since party loyalty and power trump all. What passes for discourse in Washington D.C. is no more than juvenile name calling. As for Greenspan's book, it might be an interesting read from a historical perspective. I'd also like to know what this "Amazon test" entails.
One last note, I find it quite odd that some have used this forum to berate Christians. That said, I'm a conservative Christian.
Stephen S
Head of Dubai Operations and PMO at SHUAA Capital
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I might, but not because of any partisan critiques. Greenspan always makes a lot of sense, though reasonable people can argue with his conclusions (e.g., scope and timing of Fed actions and the thesis supporting his decisions).
The plain fact is that both major US parties have not been making much sense on fiscal policy (nor have their comments on monetary policy been helpful). They both spend too much, use the tax code to distort incentives, etc.
Politicians are generally poor stewards of the economy... Which is why the Fed is independent in the first place.
Craig H
Resilient orgs/teams; framing/taxonomy/IA, open content strategy, office & SOHO infrastructure, semantic wiki
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Republicans do "deserve" to lose, but not for that reason. It's not the spending but the nature of the valuation methods and monetary system they have propagated. As late as 2002 you had Bush's press secretary happily stating that the President didn't believe in energy conservation at all, and that using a lot of energy was an American birthright. Amazing.
The effect of this idiocy is that the entire economy was sent a signal not to become efficient and thus not to become competitive, because government was going to do absolutely nothing to collect on the liabilities created by a high energy lifestyle and sprawling infrastructure, indeed, considered it an obligation to keep "expanding supply" of oil rather than reduce reliance on it.
Is it any wonder that a US dollar is now worth only about 2/3 of what it was worth, relative to the Canadian dollar (a heavily oil-dependent currency and the US's biggest trading partner)? Dependence breeds devaluation, and a blind ignorance of fundamental value breeds hyper-inflation and inability to buy anything abroad with one's currency.
Greenspan? All he really had to do was speak up about fundamental value and signal that the Fed was looking more at factors like energy efficiency in the US economy, more at material effiiency and more at modernizing and reducing long term liability of manutacturing and purchasing processes. That he was going to judge an "overheated" economy by the degree it cared about these things and took the long view. He never did.
Instead, he propagated the myth that information technology somehow will necessarily improve efficiency desite the vast piles of toxic e-waste and confusing mess of "upgrades" and total failure of private industry to create industry-specific interconnect standards much beyond the Internet. He had nothing to say that was of any use to someone who wanted to be part of a value creation equation, rather than a spiralling flush of fundamental values.
Who cares what he has to say? Let's start negotiating a value standard for global trade based on greenhouse gas credit, rainforest acres, biodiversity and water purity, all of which can be objectively measured and enforced. The 20th century is over. Let's leave its absurd "economics" behind also. And those who wrote those books.
Links:
- http://green.yahoo.com/index.php?q=node/1608
- http://worldchanging.com
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/monetary_reform
Clarification added September 15, 2007:
For those of you less aware of how the monetary system works:
1. If the guy running the hall comes in, sees too much Vogueing and not enough full contact Rumba, and announces he's taking away the punch bowl unless he sees more Rumba right away, more people start taking Rumba lessons than otherwise. Greenspan was in charge of the punch bowl for a long time.
2. Large central banks and big oil buyers have to hold US dollars because it has a huge consumer economy and (much less important) oil is priced in dollars. Because all other inflation tends to be a multiple of US inflation, there is tremendous influence on the US to put inflation fighting above all other goals. But this is good for the foreign holders of US$, not good for Americans, and certainly not good for the poorest Americans, and maybe the worst goal of all for them when asset price inflation is not figured in at all to inflation numbers.
3. The US has ceased to report the M3 money supply, meaning, it has no idea how many US there are in the world. For all we know, the number is doubling weekly. Lack of confidence in US money supply management is a contributing cause to the fall of the dollar, it's not all Greenspan's fault.
If the books reads anything like his addresses to the Fed sound, I'd fall asleep after the first 3 pages.
For example, he uses words like "withering critique." He should just say they did a shitty job. Incompetence of this magnitude would not survive 10 seconds in the corporate world. In government, it survives 6+ years and then gets awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Mike H
SQL Server specialist, author, instructor, and speaker
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What theory of Amazon's systems?
No, I won't buy the book, but I've bought plenty of others from Amazon.
I don't see anything new. They both deserve to lose. Take every single politician currently sitting in Congress and the White House, throw them all out, ban anyone who is part of either the Republican or Democrat parties, and put in regular people who have actually managed to successfully run businesses and let them clean out all of the waste and corruption. If they would spend exactly what the departments budgeted instead of tacking on $3+ billion for pet projects that benefit lobbyists sticking money in the politicians pockets, we wouldn't have 1/4 of the mess that we currently have. I don't care what your point of view is. Republicans and Democrats are equally bad and none of them are going to change until WE throw them all out and keep throwing them out until they all realize that the crap they've all pulled for the last couple of decades won't be tolerated anymore.
Clarification added September 16, 2007:
Kevin,
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Subject: RE: WSJ says Greenspan delivers the Republicans a withering critique in his memoir. Will you buy it?
Clarification added September 16, 2007:
Kevin,
Look in your private notes.
why not?
having a point of view critical of his party shouldn't make him any less interesting
I'm sure I can learn something from his stories
Douglas L
Group Director at SGS International
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Sadly, I do. Greenspan has libertarian philosophy towards governments and free enterprise. He has worked diligently to remove socialist economic constraints from the 60's and 70's, then moved forward by making money relatively inexpensive to borrow, which fueled the economy. His concepts led to a successful run. As a fiscal conservative and Republican party member, I have been upset at my own party for spending like drunken sailors, while the infrastructure crumbles (which benefits all Americans and stimulates the economy). It's a crying shame. I am very concerned about where America is going in terms of entitlements. We will crush ourselves if we believe that the government owes everyone Cadillac-style Social Security, Lexus-class healthcare and giving every government employee fluffy pensions. We need to be more fiscally prudent as a nation and people need to be more responsible for themselves. A safety net is not a lifestyle. A hand-out is not a hand-up.
Fred H
Former Marketing and Operations Executive Mattel, McDonald's and Burger King
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I am not going to buy the book. I am buying OJ's book, it wont be so boring.
Bill F
Supply chain and logistics marketing communications expert
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I'll read about it, but I probably won't read it.
No. I have long felt that the Fed's role in determining our economic course has been overstated, and Greenspan developed an "I'm above all this" attitude the longer he stayed on the job. Plus, it's easy to throw darts once you leave a position and no longer care about what others think. If he felt this way, why not do it when he could have done something about it?
He is correct, but Greenspan should be ashamed of himself for tacitly approving the Bush tax cuts in the first place, especially since they were based on ten year blue sky projections and the assumption that Congress would restrain spending. And no, I don't buy the argument that "9/11 changed everything" or that Bernie Ebbers and Ken Lay made the tax cuts a necessity in order to reduce the impact of the 2001-2002 recession.
