I can't believe Greenspan attempted to white wash this.
Remember who he's married to.....a profession whitewasher.
"..Born was particularly concerned about swaps, financial instruments that are traded over the counter between banks, insurance companies or other funds or companies, and thus have no transparency except to the two counterparties and the counterparties' regulators, if any. CFTC regulation was strenuously opposed by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers.[4] On May 7, 1998, former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt joined Rubin and Greenspan in objecting to the issuance of the CFTC’s concept release. Their response dismissed Born's concerns off-hand and focused on the possibility that CFTC regulation of swaps and other OTC derivative instruments would increase legal uncertainty of such instruments, potentially creating turmoil in the markets, and reducing the value of the instruments. Further concerns voiced were that the imposition of new regulatory costs would stifle innovation and push transactions offshore.[7].."
Credit Default Swaps were huge in the meltdown.
CONGRESS FAILED.
Anyone who marries Andrea Mitchell is a failure.
Greenspan left the Fed at the beginning of 2006. He is the favorite scapegoat of the Democrats because he advocated deregulation. The current financial mess is not a result of deregulation, but of government meddling in the economy. The Democrats want an excuse to meddle even more, hence their toadies are attacking anyone that they can brand as market oriented. Greenspan was not omniscient, and there is a limit to how much the Fed chairman can do to compensate for the fraud and thievery committed by the Democrat gang.
Brooksley Born is one of the very few heros to come out of all of this.
I’m with Born on this one.
Yes - the dems in DC own Fannie/Freddie.
But the swaps caused trillions to get sucked into a black hole.