Is Allen Greenspan bad luck for the economy?

Question

The market was flat with him in control... after he left the market has boomed! Then he shows up and speaks of recession and we have a 400 point sell-off. Is Allen Greenspan bad luck? (I realize he was never in complete control.. no one is, but its just strange)

Answer 1

I think you aren't giving him enough credit. Greenspan was in charge of the Federal Reserve through the 90's, when the economy and stock market saw tremendous growth. Yes, the economy took a hit when 9/11 happened, but it was Greenspan's watchful eye that kept the economy from going into another depression.

Yes, Greenspan may be somewhat responsible for the sell-off in the stock market yesterday, but this is because he has alot of credibility with investors. His warnings in the past have been generally right on, so people listen when he talks. The market was due for a correction anyway, so I don't think yesterday was too bad in the grand scheme of things.

Answer 2

All Greenspan can do is change the interest rates.
The Bloodsucking Big Oil companies and the other big corporations have much more detrimental effect on the economy.
If one thinks things are bad now, just wait & see if the unwashed masses are brain-dead enough to put Billary and her Tax&Spend Demacrack buddies in charge our our misbegotten government.
I think you'll REALLY have somethin' to beatch about THEN!

Answer 3

Without hard factual proof, my personal opinion is that Greenspan's function was to keep the common joe as close to poverty as possible while doing anything and everything to make the corporate elite as stinking rich as possible.

I offer only circumstantial evidence, much like your own.

In March of 2000 he utters some incomprehensible phrase like "irrational exhuberance" which - combined with repeated raises in interest rates designed to ward off a non-existant inflationary effect - ultimately causes the stock market along with the pensions and investments of literally thousands of ordinary joe's to go down the toilet in a single flush. He then proceeds to say "I told you so" for the rest of his pathetic career whereupon at his merely ceremonial return to public life, he again - like Don Quixote possessed - saves us from both non-existant inflation and nominal wealth. You see, if the common joe actually gets any wealth, the masters of industry lose their last grip over labor that being the ability to threaten them with unemployment.

Greenspan was the rich man's banker and the common man's worst enemy.