Federal Reserve & Interest Rates

Former chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan is speaking out. His brand new book: The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World is on pre-order now and will be officially released Monday, September 17th. Word has it that Greenspan has pretty straightforward commentary about the Bush Administration’s financial habits.

Apparently, Greenspan feels that the administration under Bush Jr. left much to be desired in the handling of government funds.

According to CNNMoney.com “He faults the administration of Bush II for a –decision-making process driven entirely by political calculation…By comparison, he found the Democratic interregnum sandwiched between two slices of Bush a version of Periclean Athens, where dedicated men (Bob Rubin, Larry Summers, Clinton, himself) made decisions in the nation’s long-term interest.”

Greenspan served the second longest term as chairman of the Federal Reserve in history. Now retired at age 81, Greenspan has released his memoir which accounts for his experiences, good and bad, working under several different administrations. He felt strongly about the reign of Bill Clinton stating that he had, “a consistent, disciplined focus on long-term economic growth.”

Unfortunately, he couldn’t say the same for our current president. Greenspan writes, “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” I thought it was about weapons of mass destruction? Wasn’t it about bringing peace and order to Iraq? This was supposed to be the war on terror, right?

There were always criticisms from the beginning about oil being the main underlying drive for the war. Now to have someone from the inside confirm it as fact, it kind of makes me angry.

It seems that everyone has complaints about this war and other issues under the terms of George W. Bush. While people you might call the average Joe claims hardships or lost loved ones and financial difficulties, individuals working closely on the inside have painful confessions as well. We should keep in mind that the president is surrounded by advisors and the level or input in major decisions that the man himself has is rather dubious. In other words, we can’t blame the President alone, there are some people in the shadows of questionable authority.

Alan Greenspan has had his share of time with several presidents, from Regan on. From a financial standpoint, he credits Bill Clinton with having done well for the economy out of all of them.

Overall, “If the story of the past quarter of a century has a one-line plot summary,” Greenspan writes, “it is the rediscovery of the power of market capitalism.”