Way back in 2005 the U.S. economy was in high cotton under the leadership of America’s first MBA president, financial genius George W. Bush. No one was worried about the White House climate of deregulation and non-enforcement since the country’s industrial capacity had been successfully converted to the manufacture of huge paper profits instead of boring, useful things.
The economy was one big teenage beer bash, but there was no anxiety because we had an adult chaperone. Alan Greenspan was still Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
A newly-released transcript of a 2005 Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting, however, shows Mr. Greenspan’s reaction to warnings of impending Housing Bubble doom by the Fed’s Board of Governors:
“Let’s take a break for coffee.”
The full meeting transcript is here, but Salon’s Andrew Leonard details key excerpts, including Fed Governor Mark Olson’s prescient view of mortgage-backed securities.
Related: “The Fed Has Spoken: No Bailout for Main Street,” Ellen Brown, Truthout.
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Tags: 2005, Alan Greenspan, economy, Federal Reserve Bank, finance, Greenspan, Housing Bubble, MBS, Mortgage Backed Securities, mortgage crisis, mortgages, The Fed
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