Sunday, January 4, 2009

Greenspan and Great Men

Digby makes an important point about Alan Greenspan and his Epic Fail:

He is one of the reasons I no longer have any trust at all in the great man theory. I know that people need heroes, but in our celebrity worshiping culture we take it to such ridiculous extremes that it turns dissent and questions into heresy. I no longer find it particularly useful to think in those terms much at all.

Greenspan may be one who stands out considering the horrifying ramifications, but there are many of these elders whose "reputations" have led us straight into disaster. (Colin Powell comes to mind.) Maybe it's time America gives the hero/wise man/guru concept a rest.

With about two more weeks until Barack Obama is sworn in as No. 44, I think we should remember those words.

As someone who makes a (meager) living in the media, I've learned that people are more competent and principled when they know critics and skeptics are waiting to hold them accountable.

Thus, hero-worship of Obama will do little to advance our country. Instead, it'd be nice if we could balance support with skepticism of Obama and his policies. If we can manage that, we're much more likely to get the sort of results we want.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry, Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, But Quantitative Easing Won't Work.

In a Liquidity Trap although Saving (S) is abnormally high investment (I) is next to 0.

Hence, the Keynesian paradigm I = S is not verified.

The purpose of Quantitative Easing being to lower the yield on long-term savings and increase liquidity it doesn't create $1 of investment.

In a Liquidity Trap the last thing the Market needs is liquidity.

Quantitative Easing does diminish the yield on long-term US Treasury debt but lowers marginally, if at all, the asked yield on long-term savings.

This and other issues are explored in my tract:

A Specific Application of Employment, Interest and Money
Plea for a New World Economic Order



Abstract:

This tract makes a critical analysis of credit based, free market economy, Capitalism, and proves that its dysfunctions are the result of the existence of credit.

It shows that income / wealth disparity, cause and consequence of credit and of the level of long-term interest-rates, is the first order hidden variable, possibly the only one, of economic development.

It solves most of the puzzles of macro economy: among which Unemployment, Business Cycles, Under Development, Trade Deficits, International Division of Labour, Stagflation, Greenspan Conundrum, Deflation and Keynes' Liquidity Trap...

It shows that no fiscal or monetary policy, including the barbaric Quantitative Easing will get us out of depression.


A Credit Free, Free Market Economy will correct all of those dysfunctions.


The alternative would be, on the long run, to wait for the physical destruction (through war or rust) of most of our productive assets. It will be at a cost none of us can afford to pay.

A Specific Application of Employment, Interest and Money
http://www.17-76.net/interest.html

Press release of my open letter to Chairman Ben S. Bernanke:

Sorry, Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, But Quantitative Easing Won't Work.
http://www.prlog.org/10162465.html

Yours Sincerely,

Shalom P. Hamou
Chief Economist & Master Conductor

blackink said...

Either I've been spammed or I'm stupid.

I'm willing to seriously consider both possibilities.