Comment on Greenspan (my title)

The Daily Reckoning ^ | 7/17/02

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"The fundamentals are in place for a return to sustained healthy growth," Greenspan told Congress. Following the testimony, journalists and analysts trying to read the tea leaves were reasonably certain the Fed will not raise rates.

Mostly, "the Fed Chairman came out in favor of trust and against greed," wrote Rob Peebles at the Prudent Bear.

The creatively ambiguous Greenspan suggested to senators that "even a small increase in the likelihood of large, possibly criminal penalties for egregious behavior of CEOs can have profoundly important effects" on corporate behavior.

The fact that his audience routinely ignore laws requiring their own financial accountability seemed to have escaped the Chairman's attention.

A recent report suggests that for the past five years the GAO have been "prevented from being able to provide Congress and American citizens an opinion as to whether the consolidated financial statements [of the US Government] are fairly stated in conformity with US generally accepted accounting principles."

"Over the past five years," says Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, "lawmakers have spent a total of $142 billion" more than their budgets allowed. "That's more than 12 times the misstated figures from Enron, Xerox and Worldcom combined."

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Things that make you go hmmmmm

[Piquaboy]

There might be growth if congress would just leave things alone. Sorry to say, but they have already started screwing things up.

[churchillbuff]

If Greenspan's unprecedented series of interest-rate hikes in 1999 didn't cause this recession (and kill the market), what, pray tell, did? I think it's time for him to hang it up.