I believe that the general growth in large [financial] institutions have occurred in the context of an underlying structure of markets in which many of the larger risks are dramatically — I should say, fully — hedged.
ALAN GREENSPANRegulation of derivatives transactions that are privately negotiated by professionals is unnecessary.
More Alan Greenspan Quotes
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They then need to reach a judgment about the probabilities, costs, and benefits of the various possible outcomes under alternative choices for policy.
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The very nature of finance is that it cannot be profitable unless it is significantly leveraged… and as long as there is debt, there can be failure and contagion.
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So there is no reason to suspect that the actual process of boosting rates would be any different.
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I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organisations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms.
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I came to a stark realization: chronic surpluses could be almost as destabilizing as chronic deficits.
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I don’t know where the stock market is going, but I will say this, that if it continues higher, this will do more to stimulate the economy than anything we’ve been talking about today or anything anybody else was talking about.
ALAN GREENSPAN -
Anyone willing to do what is required to become president of the United States is thereby barred from taking that office. I’m only half joking
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Amateurs want to be right. Professionals want to make money.
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If all currencies are moving up or down together, the question is: relative to what? Gold is the canary in the coal mine.
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Was sort of intellectually shocked. Contagion is the critical phenomenon which causes the thing to fall apart.
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Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights.
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I have long argued that paying down the national debt is beneficial for the economy.
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Without calling the overall national issue a bubble, it’s pretty clear that it’s an unsustainable underlying pattern.
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I’ve always argued that this country has benefited immensely from the fact that we draw people from all over the world.
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It keeps interest rates lower than they otherwise would be and frees savings to finance increases in the capital stock, thereby boosting productivity and real incomes.
ALAN GREENSPAN






