The Only Banker You Should Hate
The Devil wears glasses
Did you see your financial investments decimated by the credit crunch? Is your mortgage underwater or your house in foreclosure? Are you mired in credit card debt or unemployed?
If so, you are undoubtedly looking for someone to blame. Being human, you’re unlikely to attribute your plight to your own financial irresponsibility in over-borrowing, buying a house you couldn’t afford, living beyond your means or investing unwisely. To blame oneself is not human. We need scapegoats.
This is why we have settled on the world’s bankers as the objects of our righteous anger. Alas, the grey-suited men of Wall Street and the City were only acting on the incentives created by the world’s most powerful banker- The Federal Reserve Chairman. And the incumbent at the time the bubble inflated was none other than Alan Greenspan.
Greenspan is now tentatively accepting some responsibility for the excessively low interest rates that made money cheap and plentiful, credit easy and asset prices easy to inflate. Of course, being human, he also attributes most of the blame to someone else (Chinese fiscal surpluses flooding the US with cheap money, etc).
But at least, he’s helping us out by his (however limited) mea culpa. So if you’re still angry at your lot in life, go ahead and excoriate him with the fires of wrath and blame. You’ll feel better.
