GREENSPAN TO AYN RAND: DROP DEAD
By Tom Teicholz at 24 October, 2008, 12:07 pm
Greenpan, under questioning from Congress, admitted that he was mistaken, that his own economic beliefs were flawed and the principles that had guided him for more than 40 years were wrong.
Greenspan is another one of those individualists whose passion was ignited by Ayn Rand. Turns out being selfish and greedy is fine as long there are well-meaning checks and balances in place to allow you to rise and protect others who do not. However, we are now all seeing the consequences of extreme capitalism — the vanishing point of allowing the free market to determine everything and to determine what we value in society. Because that’s what’s happened over the last two decades.
Of course there is no pleasure here in this admission (well, maybe some) because we are all suffering from this, and will do so for a long time to come.
I also think there is a lesson in this to those who had more money than they could ever spend who decided to hold on to it and spent all their time in pursuit of more more more. Turns out you should have given some of it away, turns out you should have done some social good with it, turns out you should have given some to your less fortunate friends and relatives, turns out you should have used your ill gotten gains not to increase your expenses and your lifestyle but to lower that of yours and those you could help — because that money is gone and rather than feeling concerned about that, you might be feeling good about the tangible good that you did.
And given the mismanagement and the lies of the greedy group, the bankers and hedge fund managers and their investors and partners, the financial business now appears to be following the famous dictum of the movie business: “No one knows anything.”
Before the average American is labeled as stupid or irresponsible with their finances, let’s look to how much the greedy group have lost for all of us. They don’t look like such geniuses now.
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