Greenspan's Bubbles: The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve | 
| Authors: William Fleckenstein, Fred Sheehan
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 3959
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0071591583
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.11092
EAN: 9780071591584
ASIN: 0071591583
Publication Date: January 16, 2008
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Product Description
No matter who you are-investor, trader, homeowner, 401(k) holder, or CEO-you are bound to feel the impact of Alan Greenspan's “Age of Ignorance” for years to come. According to MSN Money columnist William A. Fleckenstein, Greenspan's nearly 19-year career as Federal Reserve Chairman is even worse than anyone imagined. Labeled “Mr. Bubble” by the New York Times, Greenspan was nothing less than a serial bubble blower with a long history of bad decision-making. His famous “Greenspan Put” fueled the perception of a Goldilocks economy-but, as this explosive expose reveals, the bear has finally caught up with Goldilocks. Using transcripts of Greenspan's FOMC meetings as well as testimony before Congress, this eye-opening book delivers a timeline of his most devastating mistakes and weaves together the connection between every economic calamity of the past 19 years: - The stock market crash of 1987
- The Savings & Loan crisis
- The collapse of Long Term Capital Management
- The tech bubble of 2000
- The feared Y2K disaster
- The credit bubble and real estate crisis of 2007
Fleckenstein explains just how far-reaching Greenspan's mess has been flung, and presents damning evidence that contradicts the former Fed chief's public naivete concerning shifts in the market and economy. He also points to a disturbing fact, that throughout his career, Greenspan not only made costly mistakes, but made the same ones-over and over again. And not only was he never able to recognize or admit to those mistakes, he constantly rewrote his own history to justify them. Greenspan's Bubbles offers a lock-stock-and-barrel portrait of a flawed but fascinating man whose words and actions have led a whole generation astray, and whose legacy will continue to challenge us in the years ahead.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 Basic look at Greenspan's missteps May 9, 2008
From almost the first page of the book, you know William Fleckenstein is NOT a Greenspan fan. Through the course of the book his bias against Greenspan is apparent, as he shifts from characterizing Greenspan as either ignorant, arrogant, naive or lazy in his stewarship of the Fed. That being said, Greenspan has given him much data to back up his assertions, and while a more balanced view might have left this reader more confident that the facts weren't skewed, the details of Greenspan's many misses are laid out over the tech and housing bubbles in stark tones. The fact that Mr. Greenspan has spent much recent time second-guessing the current Fed actions while attempting to burnish his own legacy makes the book welcome counterbalance.
 Required reading for investors and the general public April 30, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is an easy to read attack on the Fed and it's former chairman. This book provides strong evidence that Greenspan (and the rest of the Open Market committee) of the Fed played a crucial role in creating both the stock market bubble of the late 90s and the housing bubble of recent years. The author also provides several examples of Greenspan's conflicting statements regarding his opinions of these events before, during, and after they occured. Makes you wonder what Greenspan actually believes or even understands.
Investors in the late 90s read the signals the Fed.'s monetary policy that there was no stock market bubble and proceeded to inflate it further. After that bubble blew, the Fed lowered interest rates so far that consumers followed the money and inflated the housing market. Then Greenspan told everyone they should be taking ARM loans just before the Fed started raising rates and stuck it to those borrowers. Simply amazing!
Of course, the Fed isn't the only culprit here. As a society, Americans want to continue their irresponsible practices, then expect government (in these cases, the Fed) to bail us out. Where does it end?
 Green Spans Bubbles April 19, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
Greenspan's Bubbles: The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve
There seems to be too much blame to spread around for the sub-prime issue.
It's like "teflon", slides off everyone enough so no one gets ..... And this book does not pin it down, helps for the future... maybe.
J.J.R
A fantastic read. April 13, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Regardless of what you think of Greenspan before you read this book, you'll no doubt feel differently toward him when you put it down. The book is well documented. In fact, it uses Greenspan's own words to prove his failures and lies.
For example, "Moreover, attractive interest rates have bolstered the sales of existing homes and the extraction of capital gains in home equity that those sales engender. Low rates have also encouraged households to take on larger mortgages when refinancing their homes. Drawing on home equity in this manner is a significant source of funding for consumption and modernization."
The above words were spoken by Greenspan himself. How clearer could he be in saying he was the cause of the housing bubble?
But there's more. The man who set the nation's interest rates told congress that homeowners were too timid in taking out fixed rate mortgages. They should take out adjustable rate mortgages, he opined. Mortgage companies and banks should use creative financing, he offered. This from the man who would set the interest rates and break the backs of millions of homeowners!
In addition, the Greenspan years, his policies and missteps, caused the dollar to lose value. Long the reserve currency of the world, it's now worth less than most all major currencies and may not be the reserve currency much longer.
He damaged the country and all of us. Greenspan may go down in history as the person who did more harm to this country than any president or business person or criminal who ever lived.
The author does a great job in writing and documenting everything he says about Greenspan. Fact is, he lets Greenspan use his own words to show what a total failure he was and how he created the current ugly economic situation.
Highly recommended.
-Susanna K. Hutcheson
Awesome April 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Simple and entertaining, a quick read. This book explains how Greenspan has been the architect of disaster over the last 20 or so years. The facts presented in this book highlight how badly served this county is by the news media. This book doesn't even discuss how Greenspan defrauded 99% of the nation when he "solved" the social security crisis in the the 1980's. That one didn't work either.
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