Not So Fast, Al

Alan Greenspan was in the pages of the Wall St. Journal again this week with his "don't look at me" defense of his stewardship of the Federal Reserve and how he had nothing to do with our country's current crisis. I beg to differ.

I pointed this out last September, and it bears repeating now: Here is the last paragraph of a speech Greenspan gave in September 2005:

In summary, it is encouraging to find that, despite the rapid growth of mortgage debt, only a small fraction of households across the country have loan-to-value ratios greater than 90 percent. Thus, the vast majority of homeowners have a sizable equity cushion with which to absorb a potential decline in house prices. In addition, the LTVs for recent homebuyers appear to be lower in those states that have experienced the most explosive run-up in house prices and that, conceivably, could be at risk for the largest price reversal. That said, the situation clearly will require our ongoing scrutiny in the period ahead, lest more adverse trends emerge.

What the f*ck was he looking at? And what "ongoing scrutiny" did he or the Fed ever provide? Sorry, Al, you're as guilty -- if not more so -- as the rest of the regulators, ratings agencies, corrupt mortgage lenders, speculative borrowers, etc., that all came together in bubbling cauldron of toxic greed. No revisionist history, Al. Sorry.