Yogi to Alan G: 1990/91 deja vu all over again.
or, Emperor Greenspan has no clothes!
or, The Decline and Fall of the Greenspan Empire
or, Another Good Guy Felled by the Washington, DC Curse.
or, Chairman Greenspan's New Year wish:
CAN WE PLEASE HAVE SOME IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE!!
From that famous liberal DC institution, the Washington Post:
"It was a high-risk event for the Fed to tell everyone the economy was in trouble and then not to do anything about it," said Wayne Angell, a former Fed governor who on Tuesday had predicted the Fed's interest-rate cut. "In light of the economic news that has come out since, they had to move quickly to restore their credibility."
Another former Fed member, Princeton University professor Alan Blinder, said the size and speed of yesterday's move amounted to a "tacit admission by the Fed that they had kept rates too high for too long."
A decade ago, Blinder noted, Greenspan missed the early warning signs of the 1991 recession, continuing to keep a tight reign on monetary policy even as the economy was beginning to contract.
That 1991 decision "was the only blemish on the Greenspan record," said Blinder, who often clashed with the powerful chairman. "Its the only thing he looks back on as a mistake, and I'm sure he's anxious not to repeat it." |
