Greenspan vs. Buffett

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The enabler and the plodder.Greenspan was the placesetter for Big business,banks financial institutions etc. By setting rates to keep the stock market going and feeding the moneychangers as well as changing the data used to make sound financial policy by not including energy prices for inflation and using financial institutions income for trade deficit stats he could portray the economy of wall street as what runs our capitalist system.
On the other hand Buffett is the head of a money making system which relys on good honest data which will work only if all the factors are included in the formula.
The cows will come home and produce what is fed to them.I think the results are very clear and until the financial system stops working with smoke and mirrors and uses hard honest work to gauge the economy like investments should be then we are doomed as the nation we used to be.

bob simard of MA 12:30PM August 29, 2009

There is a larger difference between the two titans: Greenspan is an unrepentant disciple of the discredited greed theories of Ayn Rand, while Buffett is a simply a pragmatist. Greenspan gained a reputation like the flea on the tail of Seabiscuit by taking credit for a financial expansion engineered by Presidential and Congressional restraint. When he recently found a President and Congress more in tune with his philosophy, he and they dissed the economy, leaving the pieces to a new Fed Chairman and a new President and Congress with philosophical and moral values different from his. While Mr. Buffett has certainly benefited during the same period, his pragmatism sheltered him from Greenspan's hubris and has certainly protected his investments from the serious debacle suffered by Greenspan's Federal Reserve, the quasi Gov't Entities (FNMA and FHLMC) he spurred into subprime risk, and the investment banks he encouraged, and the economy he failed protect.

Dan The Man of CA 8:23PM August 18, 2009

It is in best interest of ceo to run short term high profit and shift future problems to the next guy. Higher profits ->> higher bonuses. What in best interests of the business may not be in best interests of the CEOs and top executives. There practices were not much different from Enron, though they did not do anything illegal. Partially they did not care whether loans were sound or not because they sold them and charge management fees.

Victor of CA 11:12PM April 03, 2009

Read all the fine print ...you must be joking. If we ever tried to read all the fine print now, we would not have time to do anything else. Aside from the point that all of this fine print is designed by company lawyers to obsure even the most basic of principles. All your need to think about is bank loans, credit card applications or home insurance contracts. Any credit card applicaton today basically allows the bank to do whatever they want including raising your interest rate to say 25% despite the fact you have always paid everything on time or simply cancel your credit altogher based on some legitimate payment dispute that you may have had with some other card issuer. Or how about so-called replacement cost home insurance that policy holders paid for years? Ask the unfortunate home owners in California how well that worked out when their home burned down and the insurance company refused to honor the "replacement" of their home.

Cam of CA 1:51PM March 14, 2009

So "everybody now admits Congress made a big mistake in deregulation". If that were so, then why do we still have all these Republican idiots, lobbyists, PAC's, so called private market free-market capitalists continuing to attempt to influence every single government debate to be resolved in favor of something that benefits themselves and for the most part disadvantges the average American. The massive wealth transfer from the 99% of average Americans to the elite 1% of Americans over the past 2-3 decades is just proof positive of the massive deception these so called free-marketers have engineered with their deregulation (meaning let them pay to change all the rules in their favor) lobbying. With regard to Warren Buffett, if the rest of the so-called private sector operated in the manner that he has, we would be significantly better off than we are today. A large part of Mr. Buffett's success is derived from buying and OPERATING real business's like furniture stores, jewllery stores, pipelines, energy companies, insulation companies, etc. He actually puts money in, employees people, and produces real goods and services. Of course he makes a profit on these, no businessman can invest and stay in businees if they don't. True that he also invests in public companies and loans money to public companies, but he does so as a LT investor for the dividend and growth returns as opposed to speculation. He is no speculator like Long Term Capital Management mentioned in the article or the banks with their mortgage securitization where they had almost no interest in holding the mortgages and flipped them as fast as they could turn a profit on them. Mr. Buffett in fact owns a mobile home manufacturer that has fairly minor loan losses on the buyer loans they originated and hold (unlike the banks and financial engineers who were in large part enabled by Mr. Greenspan). Thus you are correct in that Mr. Buffett is a real businessman who has made significant positive contributions to the US economy whereas Mr. Greenspan is has been a significant factor in the decline and manipulation of the US economy over the past decades.

Corey of CA 1:34PM March 14, 2009

Greenspan is to blame as is the Republican party and all those who pushed for more deregulation of the Stock Market.
HE HIMSELF ADMITTED BEING WRON IN THINKING THAT THE INDUSTRY WOULD HAVE THE SENSE TO REGULATE ITSELF. Given the greed exhibited throught the corporate and particularly financial sector of the economy, its hardly a surprised that the ship of state had run aground

peterklymasz of NJ 8:30AM March 12, 2009

"... the whole national debt is made up of interest charges" - thomas edison
source : michael : http://www.michaeljournal.org/plenty50.htm
Automobile manufacturer Henry Ford said:
“If the people of the nation understood our banking and monetary system, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
same source : http://www.michaeljournal.org/plenty49.htm

duggy_dugg of NJ 11:49AM March 01, 2009

To Maruis of Tenn. Blaming all this on Bush and his administration shows no brains. These problems are due to Greed which led to mismanagement and over reaching. We as a country need to start looking in the mirror, at our constant consuming of more than we can presently pay for, and are election of leaders who do the same. The future for us is bleak unless we change.

Daryl Smith of MI 1:52PM February 25, 2009

was anyone paying attention when our government allowed deregulation in the airline industry. Does anyone remember Peoples Express, Freddie Laker or any number of companies that no longer fly because of greed? That worked out well too. no one learns from history anymore. If people would stop trying to make a buck and read the fine print, maybe this country would return to a real force in all industries again.
now all i see are passing the buck and hoping for luck.

p of NJ 7:25PM February 19, 2009

was anyone paying attention when Peoples Express Airlines introduced dereguation and air travel? That worked out well too. no one learns from history anymore. If people would stop trying to make a buck and read the fine print, maybe this country would return a solid force in all industries again.
now all i see are passing the buck and hoping for luck.

p of NJ 7:20PM February 19, 2009