Friday, February 18, 2005

Krugman bitchslaps Greenspan

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In today's New York Times, erudite economist and savvy columnist Paul Krugman basically bitchslaps Fed Chair Alan Greenspan, saying that the uniquely (and unwisely) esteemed chairman has become nothing more than "a partisan hack."

In testimony this week before Congress, Greenspan offered flimsy to NO excuse for supporting the Bush administration's plan to privatize Social Security. Krugman says that in 2001 Greenspan at least offered up some far-flung reasons to support weak, risky and even tragic fiscal policies. But now, with the Dems dog-tailed and the Bush-men entrenched for a few years at least, the godly Greenspan sees no reason to come up with spurious reasons why such privatization might really strengthen the nation's fiscal health. Why be quoted later for gutting your own good record?

Really, it just seems Greenspan and the Bush guys see Wall Street as their own multinational-conglomerate casino. Ah, yes, the legislature goes to Las Vegas. It seems these money-mongers would like nothing more than a nation of giddy bettors - as if we weren't already risking it all, leveraging ourselves to the eyeballs and stocks and stuff and gambling our home loans to pay off our credit cards.

It's a plasic house of cards around here, and these guys are fiddling with the foundations of any chance of fiscal stability we've got left - just because they resent the stamp of a Democratic legacy? Kill it, any legacy but one of greed and the "ownership society." Too bad those self-same guys won't own up to the consequences of such a society themselves. Instead, it seems they just as soon disown the rest of us, and sail their yachts in the wake of the Titanic, out amongst the icebergs into the afterglow of the American empire and the grim, cold dawn of whatever comes next.



[Thanks to friend Steve, who these days is an expat in Shanghai, for this topic and for that bitchin' title. Keep 'em coming, Steve!]

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