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:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 8667
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 29 more reviews...
 Fleckentstien called it all along... August 27, 2008
A friend at work turned me on to Fleckenstien's articles during the peaks of the housing bubble, and all along he predicted the housing market crash. The only thing he had wrong was the timing as thought it would happen sooner. This book sheds light on Greenspans role in two ecenomic bubbles and does so with Felckenstien's unique sense of humor. It is tough to make subjects like this interesting, but this book is a good read. Felckenstien predicted both "bubble bursts" in his columns when everyone else was screaming about the next tech stock that was going to take over the world or talking about how "real estate never goes down." If he says the sh-t is going to hit the fan and you are standing in front of the fan, you should probably move.
Why is the country in this mess? August 9, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Why is this country in this mess? Thanks to you, Mr. Greenspan. Just read Fred Sheehan and Bill
Flekenstein's book. It's is written well and explains why... Greenspan.
Masterly of Sir Alan August 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Alan Greenspan, called The Maestro, has almost singlehandedly created the two largest financial bubbles in world history. Federal Reserve is the worlds biggest central bank, and should have understood the nature of the both the it-bubble in the last half of the nineties, and the housing bubble in the naughties. But it didn't.
Instead, Alan Greenspan has been the cheerleader for both bubbles. He consistently cut rates when the stock market was in turmoil. He was bragging about the productivity gains in the 90s (which turned out to be a scam). He kept on insisting that it is impossible to know if there is a bubble in a market, before it is pricked. During the housing bubble, Greenspan was talking about the benefits of securitizing mortgages. Even today, Greenspans biggest worry is that the crisis will lead to tighter regulation of the financial industry.
The book is short, to the point, and well researched. It is extremely timely. Fleckenstein is deeply engaged, and it would do him well to give Greenspan a nudge from time to time. Still, it is well worth reading.
 Fist Fight? July 20, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
The book appears to contain a few things of substance, but you have to look so hard to get past the vitriole it's almost not worth the effort. I'm not a big Greenspan fan and certainly not his apologist, but Fleckenstein appears to be pissed beyond reason. I get the impression Fleckenstein thought he should have been appointed Fed Chair and hasn't gotten over it yet. If Greenspan was as imbecilic as Fleckenstein tries to paint him, he wouldn't be able to find his way to the men's room without a GPS. Come on Fleck, get over it. You've got something to say. Could you possibly say it without all the name calling and innuendo. Why not take Greenspan out on the playground and you two can duke it out? Take a deep breath. Count to ten. Have a glass of wine.
If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention July 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's taking me a long time to read this because I become so angry that I have to put the boook down. This well-documented collection of mistakes at the highest financial levels, and the following "spin", demonstrates that the bigger the job, the more likelihood of error, and the greatest likelihood is that the person in charge maintains arrogant ignorance and shovels it out to the unsuspecting public.
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