Allan Greenspan

Alan Greenspan was, for a great many years, a true believer in the god of market fundamentalism. The great man that he is, he recently admitted publicly, that he was wrong. The former Federal Reserve chairman, said that the current financial crisis had uncovered a flaw in how the free market capitalism works that shocked him.

He told the House Oversight Committee that his belief that banks would be more prudent in their lending practices because of the need to protect their stockholders had proved to be wrong.

This is like admitting that the Ayn Rand philosophy for the selfish, greedy, stupid, and insane works but works only for those who are precisely greedy, selfish, stupid, and insane.

He admitted that he had made a “mistake” in believing that banks operating in their self-interest would be enough to protect their shareholders and the equity in their institutions.

He said that he had found “a flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works.”

He headed the nation’s central bank for 18.5 years, said that he and others who believed lending institutions would do a good job of protecting their shareholders are in a “state of shocked disbelief.”

Bertrand Russell wrote: “No, the greatest men have not been “serene.” They have had, it is true, an ultimate courage, a power of creating beauty where nature has put only horror, which may, to a petty mind, appear like serenity. But their courage has had to surpass that of common men, because they have seen deeper into the indifference of nature and the cruelty of man. To cover up these things with comfortable lies is the business of cowards; the business of great men is to see them with inflexible clarity, and yet to think and feel nobly. And in the degree in which we can all be great, this is the business of each one of us.”

In this 21st century, Allan Greenspan is one such great man in the world today. He will yet change the filthy ways of filthy Americans who became filthy rich in the filthy way. Poch Suzara