March 27, 2015

Was Alan Greenspan just a mole planted in the capitalistic system by statist ideologists?

Sir, I refer to Daniel Ben-Ami’s review of David M. Kotz’ “The rise and fall of neoliberalism capitalism” FT-Wealth, Spring 2015.

It states: “It is richly ironic that the Fed chairman from 1987 to 2006 was Alan Greenspan, an ardent devotee of Ayn Rand, an arch free marketer”.

Hold it there!

Put that in the perspective of the Basel Accord having approved, in 1988, that the risk-weights for determining the equity banks needed to hold when lending to central governments was to be zero percent, while the risk-weight when lending to an SME, or to an entrepreneur, or to an ordinary citizen were set to be 100 percent.

Put that in the perspective of that with Basel II, in 2004, the regulators determined that the same risk weight for a member of the private AAArisktocracy was to be only 20 percent, while the risk-weight applicable to an SME, or to an entrepreneur, meaning to an ordinary citizen was to remain 100 percent.

If anything distorted free markets, that was it!

And in 2007-08 the AAA-bomb detonated and short after "infallible sovereigns" like Greece ran into big troubles

And so what conclusions can we have to reach? Could it perhaps be that Alan Greenspan was just one of many moles, planted by statist or anti-capitalist ideologists, in the heart of the capitalistic system, meaning its banks?