Had Greenspan increased margin requirements it would have directly attacked speculation, and reduced the need to ratchet interest rates as much, which then had to be rapidly unwound.
It was the speculation that sent PEs into infinity, and it would have happened anyway due to tech fascination, online innovation, demographics, and "era of good feeling" with Clinton's silly impeachment. But margin requirements changed would have tempered that, sent a message to the market to cool it a bit.
That it wasn't even tried was dumb. The rake-in by brokers such as Knight-Trimark was awesome, and lots of pressure was on to keep the casino going. Rumor had it that one front-running trader made $600m in one year. It needed to be cooled off, as well as, of course, opened up and investigated, which wasn't done either... |
