Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity are in a state of shocked disbelief.
ALAN GREENSPANThose of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity are in a state of shocked disbelief.
ALAN GREENSPANBut how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions as they have in Japan over the past decade?
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 GREENSPANIt has been my experience that competency in mathematics, both in numerical manipulations and in understanding its conceptual foundations.
ALAN GREENSPANA decline in the national housing price level would need to be substantial to trigger a significant rise in foreclosures, because the vast majority of homeowners have built up substantial equity in their homes despite large mortgage.
ALAN GREENSPANIt’s hard to overemphasize how important Ford’s deregulation was. True, most of the benefits took years to unfold-rail freight rates, for example hardly budged at first.
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 GREENSPANStripped of its academic jargon, the welfare state is nothing more than a mechanism by which governments confiscate the wealth of the productive members of a society to support a wide variety of welfare schemes.
ALAN GREENSPANI love to play tennis and golf, listen to music, watch baseball and root for the Redskins.
ALAN GREENSPANThere are no easy choices. Easy choices are long gone.
ALAN GREENSPANThe number one problem in today’s generation and economy is the lack of financial literacy.
ALAN GREENSPANPolitical decisions are never random and will always lose out to innovative alternatives.
ALAN GREENSPANI cannot conceive of a politically feasible solution to this problem which will overdo cutting the deficit, where overdoing means harming the economy. It might be technically possible, but it is not realistic.
ALAN GREENSPANProductivity is notoriously difficult to predict.
ALAN GREENSPANI’m a plain soap kind of guy.
ALAN GREENSPANNor can private counterparties restrict supplies of gold, another commodity whose derivatives are often traded over-the-counter, where central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise.
ALAN GREENSPAN