Sunday, October 12, 2008

Day Three: 10/13/2008

Considered: Alan Greenspan


Conclusion: Kill it with lightning!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

How could you present us with such a task as making up our own minds, O Emperor? Isn't that your job? Not to criticize, of course. Visors or no, I know when Storm Troopers are looking at me sideways. If I must think for myself, I have to say...

Obi-Wan... there... is good in him.

Generally, we see a prosperous America in Greenspan's time as Federal Reserve Chairman. There is a duality to America's wealth during those years, however–as we grew more wealthy, our debt also grew, and we engaged in more and more risky moves.

Mr. Greenspan steered our economy through various crisis and wars with commendable skill, controlling inflation along the way. He had the economy's best interests in mind, and really seemed to be doing his job. You would think these would be basic requirements for a government position, but, as our dearly corrupt Emperor can tell you, it's not. The way he did his job throughout his five-term tenure (not that things such as terms or democracy mean anything to our Honorable Lord Palpatine) persuades me over to his side. He saw a recession coming in and before 2007, and was surprised the likelihood of it happening wasn't higher then. Now, we're heading into the last months of 2008, and while the Dow Jones is only just starting to pull out of its five-year-low nose dive, every-day people will tell you the same thing: "Feels like a recession to me." Well, Mr. Greenspan called it. And if it weren't for his support of derivatives, I'd give him a clean bill.

During his eighteen years as Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan has been a huge defender of derivatives. I won't suggest you kill him with lightning just for this, but in my opinion–which the Great and Powerful Lord Palpatine has deigned to allow me to express–it's not the best stance to take. These derivatives are meant to make exchanges less risky, but in the hands of the greedy, it becomes much more risky. America is made up primarily of millions of little people, and in the hands of inexperienced little people, derivatives can become very dangerous. People don't realize that the system was created in favor of larger parties that will be enabled to take larger risks and potentially see larger success, not the every-day person with little market savvy. Even large parties can find themselves experiencing massive loss: Orange County, CA–yes, that's right, the Orange County–lost $1.6 billion because of incorrectly used derivatives. We can't blame Mr. Greenspan for the risks people take, or for the greed of the people who benefit from these risks, but nothing's stopping us from saying maybe he should backup and regroup on his derivative stance, and this time, factor in humanity's nature toward greed and living outside of our means.