Before I met Ayn Rand, I was a logical positivist, and accordingly,
ALAN GREENSPANBefore I met Ayn Rand, I was a logical positivist, and accordingly,
ALAN GREENSPANThe current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the Second World War.
ALAN GREENSPANCapitalism is based on self-interest and self-esteem; it holds integrity and trustworthiness as cardinal virtues and makes them pay off in the marketplace, thus demanding that men survive by means of virtue, not vices.
ALAN GREENSPANCorruption, embezzlement, fraud, these are all characteristics which exist everywhere.
ALAN GREENSPANExcessive optimism sows the seeds of its own reversal.
ALAN GREENSPANRegulators have not been able to achieve the level of future clarity required to act pre-emptively.
ALAN GREENSPANI 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 GREENSPANIf we are to remain preeminent in transforming knowledge into economic value, America’s system of higher education must remain the world’s leader in generating scientific and technological breakthrough, and in meeting the challenge to educate workers.
ALAN GREENSPANSenator, we are groping for understanding, the knowledge you assume I possess doesn’t exist’.
ALAN GREENSPANSuch caution seems especially warranted with regard to the sharp rise in equity prices during the past two years. These gains have obviously raised questions of sustainability.
ALAN GREENSPANI 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.
ALAN GREENSPANExcessive optimism shows the seeds of its own reversal in the form of imbalances that tend to grow over time.
ALAN GREENSPANCash is available and we should use that in larger amounts, as is necessary, to solve the problems of the stress of this.
ALAN GREENSPANDeficit spending is simply a scheme for the ‘hidden’ confiscation of wealth.
ALAN GREENSPANAmerican consumers might benefit if lenders provided greater mortgage product alternatives to the traditional fixed-rate mortgage.
ALAN GREENSPANAny onset of increased investor caution elevates risk premiums and, as a consequence, lowers asset values and promotes the liquidation of the debt that supported higher asset prices.
ALAN GREENSPAN