I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,” Mr. Greenspan said.
Referring to his free-market ideology, Mr. Greenspan added: “I have found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact.”
Mr. Waxman pressed the former Fed chair to clarify his words. “In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working,” Mr. Waxman said.
“Absolutely, precisely,” Mr. Greenspan replied. “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well . . . This crisis, however, has turned out to be much broader than anything I could have imagined.
Meanwhile, while Mr. Andrea Mitchell ponders his navel, Alex Tabarrok, Tyler Cowen and the others over at Marginal Revolutions have a lively and interesting conversation about ‘The 4 Myths Of The Credit Crisis.’ Alex expressed skepticism about the stampede for a massive bailout from the beginning. Three economists from the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis offered what they claim is empirical evidence that the ‘Wall Street Crisis’ never really threatened the ‘real economy.’ For a pithy take down of that report, here.
As far as the Stiftung knows, no one in the above exchanges has any ties to or experience with the plumbing industry.
Anon says
Spammers deserve hell!!!
BTW, I’m not the same “Anon” as above. Should I change my moniker ? Didn’t know there was one already…
Anon says
Brutality as farce:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_mz3TlRtHs
Also hilariouus – Dershowitz obvious neurosis at HuffPo over his pretending not to care about Obama honoring a Palestinian scholar.
Anonymous says
Heh.
A Random Quote says
Well, I think the elite media’s attack on Governor Palin again and again has been factually wrong, intellectually dishonest, totally biased, worthy of the Polish state news media attacking Lech Walesa back in the 1980s. I mean, this is a kind of deliberate, vicious, dishonest, total distortion of who Governor Palin is, including, by the way, the “Saturday Night Live” skits, some of which I think were slander and were worthy of a lawsuit.
~Newt
FNC, Oct 22, 2008
Anon says
Conrad Black’s footman runs down a rabbit hole. Not that it matters – but almost everything Steyn says is misleading his readers. Yes – donations are immediately accepted. Then they are retured within days when found to be wrong.
This is how all campaigns do it – But Steyn is an ignoramus and he lives in his own delusions.
But we welcome him and the others worry about Khaladi and stuff like this. Obama is actually at the point in his campaign when he can admit Khaladi is a human being.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Zjg2YTM4Y2FlZTE5NTg3YzdjNDc5ODU5YWVkNTBjMzk=
Anon says
Classic Rubin:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjQ0ZjJhYzVhN2QzZDAzYmIyMzkzZDc4MWEwMzNhODg=
Alex – your blog is often brilliant.
Alex says
I’ve been dropping my cannibal post into strategic comments threads in the hope the meme gets picked up.”McCain-Palin: Eat the UN First!” – not a bad slogan, eh?
A Random Quote says
“He [Charles Taylor] said we should eat them [members of the Krahn tribe of Liberia’s former president, Samuel Doe]. Even the UN white people – he said we could use them as pork to eat … [to] set an example for the people to be afraid …We ate a few [UN Ecomog soldiers], but not many. But many were executed, about 68,” “.
Joseph “Zigzag” Marzah
(Former Charles Taylor Chief of
Operations in Liberia]
Hague Testimony, BBC March 2008
Calling David Brooks!
Anon says
Nicolle Wallace – lol – Let the games begin. It’s kinda funny for some of us Obama supporters to see McCain consumed in pseudo-scandals “DIVA!” etc
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/28/nicolle_wallace_defends_hersel.html
Anon says
An Obama spy – Douglas Holtz-Eakin has made so many gaffes
as McCain’s economic advisor that one wonders if he
is a double agent. Hopefully all the James Jesus Angleton wannabees in the GOP will have spyhunt after tuesday.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/28/obama_makes_hay_of_mccain_advi.html#more
Alex says
You’re right about that; that photo of Ashley Todd is like a mirror held up to their monstrous, swollen, toadlike id. There’s the slut-shaming/porno tension, the race baiting, the wannabe spookery, and above it all the reversed B, the symbol of all that Viennese schlamperei.
Comment says
This campaign is so old now that it seems endless. Who among us does not love watching the conservative crack up begin?
Lots of right wing blogs and web sites like NRO et al look like the work of mentally ill. Total breakdown.
Comment says
If we were running Newsweek, we’d replace Father Meachem with Fareed Zakaria. Fareed is far far more intelligent and good humored – Plus, his silky smooth move away from Bletchly infamy vindicates his spotters who say him as a man of promise. Ken Adelman is a joke because he is not som smooth.
So Newsweek should tell Meachem to be their Episcopalian reporter – He should just cover the Episcopal church. That’s all.
Comment says
re AMC – didn’t she start out as wonkette? That’s basically a gossip site like gawker – So her remanding back to the gossip fold at Radar(assuming she is no longer with Time) is symbolic of the popping of the superbubble.
The real rain has not even begun to wash away the bubbles in the media world. Only Rupert Murdoch has a healthy balance sheet.
Comment says
That AMC interview with McCain is bizarre. How can McCain possibly find the time to watch all those TV shows?
Especially with his supposed love for Hemingway taking up his spare moments.
He even reads scripts. I have not seen some of the shows he mentioned, but most TV scripts make for pretty bad reading.
McCain was excellent at the Al Smith dinner – But that just showed how he lost the debates – McCain’s staff did not have to spin McCain doing well at the Al Smith dinner.
The tragedy is that McCain is now a character (poorly developed) in Mark Salter’s screenplay. Salter created a ridiculous saintly person who was overvalued like a stock.
Comment says
“We are living in an extraordinary time.
The world has been badly shaken.”
~Bernard Henri-Levi
(On the financial crisis)
Comment says
LOL
DrLeoStrauss says
Aside from war profiteers and a few select others, Ann Marie Cox must surely rank up there as one who has prospered during the Warlord’s reign. Hadda Hopper would be jealous — to think a career was launched with a few blog posts every week about drinking and lazy sexual references.
Alas, from Time to Radar. One can imagine Father Meacham’s reaction to an AMC job interview —-
FM: You have a colorful body of work. What exactly do you do? I mean, have you covered a specific beat before? You know, America is still a fundamentally conservative country, with a deep and often unexpressed love for God, random violence, racial and gender bigotry, and deep resentment and suspicion of education. These core values and strengths renew themselves each generation with Americans’ enduring love of country.
AMC: Well, I found a few shots of kamikazes or jello shooters and some hot jacuzzi action . . .
FM: Yes, well, you know I think Churchill said it best when . . .
AMC: OMG! He was such the alcoholic! I heard John Podesta talking all about that at a Center for American Progress party.
But the best part was when Podesta shoved a celery stick in his nose trying to hit on this totally hot 23 year old intern, except he didn’t know that she is gay and has a secret crush on Sarah Palin, and everyone tried not to laugh, so their drinks came spewing out their noses, too. I could so write this up for you !
Anon says
Holbrooke – still trying to make up for lost time.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amb-richard-c-holbrooke/why-the-nation-and-the-wo_b_138299.html
Comment says
Some of our very very angry right wing pals are stupified that people are talking about Ted Stevens and not Rezko and they are crying “SOCIALISM” in their beer.
Anon says
An oddly fascinating McCain interview with Ann Marie Cox.
http://radaronline.com/from-the-magazine/2008/10/john_mccain_radar_exclusive_interview_jon_stewart_01.php
Comment says
Comment felt bad for McCain today on MTP – he had a senior moment and couuld not reel off George Schultz’s name.
Anon says
re Stanley Kurtz – This guy is not appreciating
the tables being turned on him. Btw – Ethics and Public
Policy Center is a joke
http://fightthesmears.com/articles/28/KurtzSmears
Anon says
Frabk Gaffney – a “comically ignorant hack”
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/10/weakness_invites_aggression.php
Comment says
Correction – actually we hope McCain was not personally involved in Mutilationgate – That would be too sad – But this Brian Rogers guy has lots to answer for.
Comment says
TPM things they have the goods on McCain re Mutilationgate – One can only hope for McCain to be caught up in such
a nasty piece of work.
Charles Fried just left the sinking ship.
Comment says
Pastor Meachem (or is it Father?) and his maudlin sermons are not taken seriously by anyone. Yet, he
is well on his way to becoming an Establishment Voice
in the media – He is someone who sets
some of the conventional wisdom barriers.
Meachem is “Serious,” if not serious.
Aldershot says
“Hilarious – Joe helped his brother by accident – he showed
the world that bellicose insanity is a family trait, not something John picked up in Vietnam.”
Heh. Another piece of the puzzle falls into place, thanks to our crack investigator, Comment.
DrLeoStrauss says
Father Meacham hasn’t been himself since he lost the towel-snapping fraternity approval of Imus et al. He was ‘this close’ to moving from plebe to being a cool kidz when the frat got shut down.
Comment says
Ot – we still think McCain would have been better off with Bobby Jindal or Maria Bartoroma.
Comment says
Leo, what do you think of Jon Meachem? He’s
on Charlie Rose. We generally regard Meachem
to be clown-like.
Comment says
“So, already the work is beginning to paint Barack into a corner–and get him to pursue polices rejected by the realists in the Bush administration.
I’m a hopin’ that Barack is wise enough to see through all this, and recognizes that an attack on Iran would wreck his presidency and much else. But Lobe –perhaps the Beltway’s most sophisticated analyst of neoconservative tactics– fears him getting boxed in.”
~ Scott McConnell
Obama has to be super carefull about this and we will never know how he does until his regime ends. Obama, out of pure political necessity, has to keep Dennis Ross and others in the tent. To a certain degree – There is
tremendous wariness among Obama’s people who are his
real allies and who are not – And they know the others know that they know the others know.
So the more Obama wants to avoid war, the more he has to convince Ross et al, that he wants war (to a degree).
But the best way is to rely on the budget crisis and try to set up various European and Iraqi roadblocks and change the diplomatic frame – while having Biden issue spittle from time to time.
Comment says
A great caller today on Bob Grant called into offer his theories about Obama’s ‘ploy’ to visit Grandma – He said Obama would go to cheer up his white Grandma so she could live long enough to make it to the election. That way, when she passes away after the election Obama will get a sympathy bump in the polls.
So , in other words, he conceded Obama had some sort of power to keep his Grandma alive. An amazing accidental concession. On the other hand, we do recall Obama’s sister telling a crowd something similar
Comment says
re Cannibalism – when the wingnut media was really in its waxing phase – like 2000 against Gore, it would have been able to make something cannibalism a huge issue if McCain was a liberal democrat. McCain might have been put into a situation where he would have had to deny personally eating people and/or agreeing to an independent investigation into Charlie Black’s cannible links – having Charlie Black hauled before Congress and be forced to take the 5th when asked if he ever ate a human.
Comment says
Oh – btw – Did you catch Joe McCain calling 9-11 to
complain about traffic and then saying “F— you?”
Hilarious – Joe helped his brother by accident – he showed
the world that bellicose insanity is a family trait, not something John picked up in Vietnam.
Comment says
re Joan Walsh – lol
Comment says
Incidentally – if you read those Chilie docs – McCain not only meet with Pinochet (pissing off the left), but he also managed to mock Pincochet by comparing him
to a member of the John Birch society (pissing of the base – even those who pretend to be non Birchers)
Comment says
One problem McCain has had is translating the coded conversations on the right wing (where his secret meetings with Pinchet are regared as good, not bad) into the public.
So when Obama mocks McCain (“He doesn’t even want to meet with Spain!”) – he completely reverses the standard
narrative template Randy Scheuemann was relying on
when he said McCain would not meet with Zapetero.
Normally, liberals try to muffle the right wing freakish accusations. It’s possible to imagine a time in the recent
past when McCain’s dis of Zapatero would be good politics.
Bush’s ham handed way of simpilfying things helped him to do this.
But McCain figures if he tried to explain to a national audience when he did not want to meet with the leader of Spain, he would sound very odd to those unititiated
into standard AEI-speak.
Comment says
On second thought, it would be best for someone
beside Obama to refer to the McCain-Brooks-Cannible
link.
Generally, Obama is pretty good at framing responses to issues that occupy the minds of the freak show – talk radio – The Corner.
Obama’s clever bemused “I was eight years old” reply to Ayers stuff is actually perfect because he is replying to the coded implications rather than the literal accusations. It drives the talk radio crowd insane and it makes their callers sound even more lunatic on the radio. Bob Grant sounds like he is losing his marbles
Ayers has become a negative for McCain in polling – It has served as flytrap for weirdos who are embrassing the more upscale weirdos at National Review –
We have long belived Ayers would fail for no other reason that name sounds like “air” and average people will never link. Plus, when it became publicly linked to downscale voters in the sticks – people wanted to be on the other side of the debate,
Damm – also. People calling into talk radio shows like Bob Grant are confused – They are not sure if Ayers is white, black or Arab – all these things are getting
jambled.
Obama to white 60s stuff.
Comment says
A perfect time for Obama to bring up McCain’s link to
cannibalism would have been the Al Smith dinner – It would have reveberated because of all the power players
in the audiencde and on TV – Yes, and he
could have attributed it to David Brooks.
But this is how we see it coming up in a debate:
—
Lehrer: Senator Obama, do you have a reply?
Obama: Um, well Jim. According to your colleague, the *conservative* columnist David Brooks, John McCain’s top lobbyist advisor, Charlie Black, was a lobbyist
for a Cannabil.
(McCain shakes his, turns red,)
Lehrer: A cannible? Explain?
Obama: I’ll leave it to the McCain campaign to explain to to David Brooks why they worked with people who eat
people.
—later that night —-
David Brooks: I never said that. I just relayed what was being said. I never said that. Obama was irresponsible.
DrLeoStrauss says
re Khamanie quote — it is quite clever.
A Savimbi aside in a debate would have been pure icing on the cake. One can imagine Tweety desperately trying to come to grips with cannibalism meme infilitration. . .
Tweety:
“Joan Walsh, are you telling me, really telling me here, now, on TV, that because Charlie Black worked with this Savimbi guy, this so-called Reagan ‘freedom fighter’ in Africa who is alleged to have been a cannibal, are you really telling me that this means Team McCain eats people????
Are you making that allegation here tonite ?! I am asking you directly. That Team McCain are cannibals. Is this guilt by association? Yes or no !!”
Joan Walsh:
“Chris, no one wants to do that. Not at all. We are just saying that this relationship between Savimbi and the McCain campaign needs to be investigated. We need all the facts. What exactly was the relationship with this notorious Savimbi character. There is alot there that should concern the American people. We need to know it all so the American people can decide.”
Tweety:
“OK, that’s Joan Walsh, calling for a thorough investigation of the relationship between Charlie Black and possibly others in the McCain camp with an alleged cannibal and freedom fighter in Africa.
At least this happened in the 1980s. Most of us remember the 1980s. Miami Vice. Good times.
The Weathermen? William Ayers? That’s the problem with the McCain team, I ask you Howard Fineman. They’re digging up skeletons from too long ago in the 1970s. And the guy is now a school teacher. People think of cannibalism and I don’t care where you are from, suburban Philadelphia or outside Pittsburgh, everyone hates cannibals. It’s just a fact.
Shouldn’t McCain be playing it smart and doing something like this? Finding something like cannibalism and Obama rather than talking about William Ayers from the 1970s and some plumber? Cannibalism is a gut issue !”
Fineman: . . .
Anon says
This critique of Greenspan was posted in June – Send it to Andrea Mitchell.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/ContrarianChronicles/TheEndOfTheSuperbubble.aspx
Greenspan has a semi bad day on the Hill – but he still
lucks out because no one on the Committee really prepares
or reads serious stuff
Anon says
This Pinochet stuff with McCain on HuffPo is a wash electorally. But there is something odd sounding about these docs that HuffPo posted. There are parts of them that sound a bit off – Was HuffPo fed some adulterated stuff? YMMV
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/BDPoindexterletter.pdf
However – there is story about McCain and RENAMO that had potential if Obama had it earlier and he could have
made a glib comment during the debates.
Obama could have pitted McCain against Reagan’s stated policy and got McCain to roll his eyes and lose his cool.
We had alway hoped for Savimbi’s link to Charlie “Geisha Girl” Black coming up. Oh well
Anon says
You know Michael Rubin – that perpetually suspicious looking goofball that worked for Bremer:
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/08/26/rubin-its-bidens-fault-that-the-bush-administration-has-no-coherent-iran-policy/
NB – The Khamanie quote at the end is kind of clever. Sorry to say, but it is.
Anon says
Fleckenstein above has long been an excellent bear analysts = his index is worth checking out.
We are lookint at Soros on the cover of the Wall St. Journal in June saying it was gonna happen soon. Fleck was saying pretty much the same thing. So when it
hit in Sept –
Anon says
Bob Fleckenstei has been on point for quite a while:
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/ContrarianChronicles/is-credit-crisis-over-not-so-fast.aspx