Editing Alan Greenspan (section)

===2007–2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession===
In March 2008, Greenspan wrote an article for the ''[[Financial Times]]''{{'}} Economists' Forum in which he said that the [[2008 financial crisis]] in the United States is likely to be judged as the most wrenching since the end of [[World War&nbsp;II]]. In it he argued: "We will never be able to anticipate all discontinuities in financial markets." He concluded: "It is important, indeed crucial, that any reforms in, and adjustments to, the structure of markets and regulation not inhibit our most reliable and effective safeguards against cumulative economic failure: market flexibility and open competition." The article attracted a number of critical responses from forum contributors, who, finding causation between Greenspan's policies and the discontinuities in financial markets that followed, criticized Greenspan mainly for what many believed to be his unbalanced and immovable ideological suppositions about global capitalism and free competitive markets. Notable critics included [[J.&nbsp;Bradford DeLong]], [[Paul Krugman]], [[Alice Rivlin]], [[Michael Hudson (economist)|Michael Hudson]], and [[Willem Buiter]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.ft.com/wolfforum/2008/03/we-will-never-have-a-perfect-model-of-risk/ |title=We will never have a perfect model of risk |work=Financial Times|last=Greenspan |first=Alan |date=March 17, 2008 |access-date=June 22, 2009}}</ref>

Greenspan responded to his critics in a follow-up article in which he defended his ideology as applied to his conceptual and policy framework, which, among other things, prohibited him from exerting real pressure against the burgeoning housing bubble or, in his words, "leaning against the wind". Greenspan argued, "My view of the range of dispersion of outcomes has been shaken, but not my judgment that free competitive markets are by far the unrivaled way to organize economies". He concluded: "We have tried regulation ranging from heavy to central planning. None meaningfully worked. Do we wish to retest the evidence?"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.ft.com/wolfforum/2008/04/alan-greenspan-a-response-to-my-critics |title=A response to my critics |work= Financial Times|last=Greenspan |first=Alan |date=April 6, 2008 |access-date=June 22, 2009}}</ref> ''Financial Times'' associate editor and chief economics commentator [[Martin Wolf]] defended Greenspan primarily as a scapegoat for the market turmoil. Several notable contributors in defense of Greenspan included [[Stephen S. Roach]], [[Allan Meltzer]], and Robert Brusca.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c50fef0-056a-11dd-a9e0-0000779fd2ac.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c50fef0-056a-11dd-a9e0-0000779fd2ac.html |archive-date=December 10, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |first=Martin |last=Wolf |title=Why Greenspan Does Not Bear Most of the Blame |work=Financial Times |date=April 8, 2008 |access-date=June 22, 2009}}</ref>

However, an October 15, 2008, article in ''[[The Washington Post]]'' analyzing the origins of the economic crisis claims that Greenspan vehemently opposed any regulation of [[Derivative (finance)|derivatives]], and actively sought to undermine the office of the [[Commodity Futures Trading Commission]] when the commission sought to initiate regulation of derivatives. Meanwhile, Greenspan recommended improving mark-to-market regulations to avoid having derivatives or other complex assets marked to a distressed or illiquid market during times of material adverse conditions seen during the late 2000s credit crisis.<ref>{{cite news |title=What Went Wrong |first1=Anthony |last1=Faiola |first2=Ellen |last2=Nakashima |first3=Jill |last3=Drew |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/14/AR2008101403343.html |date=October 15, 2008 |newspaper=The Washington Post |page=A01 |name-list-style=amp}}</ref>

Greenspan was not alone in his opposition to derivatives regulation. In a 1999 government report that was a key driver in the passage of the [[Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000]]—legislation that clarified that most [[Over-the-counter (finance)|over-the-counter]] derivatives were outside the regulatory authority of any government agency—Greenspan was joined by Treasury Secretary [[Lawrence Summers]], [[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission|Securities and Exchange Commission]] Chairman [[Arthur Levitt]], and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman William Ranier in concluding that "under many circumstances, the trading of financial derivatives by eligible swap participants should be excluded from the CEA" ([[Commodity Exchange Act]]). Other government agencies also supported that view.<ref name=PWG>{{cite report |first1=Lawrence |last1=Summers |first2=Alan |last2=Greenspan |first3=Arthur |last3=Levitt |first4=William |last4=Ranier |title= Over-the-Counter Derivatives Markets and the Commodity Exchange Act: Report of The President's Working Group on Financial Markets |date=November 1999 |url= http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/reports/otcact.pdf |access-date=August 15, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090825004934/http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/reports/otcact.pdf |archive-date=August 25, 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In Congressional testimony on October 23, 2008, Greenspan acknowledged that he was "partially" wrong in opposing regulation and stated "Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity—myself especially—are in a state of shocked disbelief."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Felsenthal |first1=Mark |title=Greenspan "shocked" at credit breakdown |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-financial-greenspan-idUKTRE49M5SJ20081023 |access-date=June 14, 2022 |work=Reuters |publisher=Thomson Reuters |date=October 23, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220614182437/https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-financial-greenspan-idUKTRE49M5SJ20081023 |archive-date=June 14, 2022 |location=[[City of London]] |format=Report on meeting of Committee on Oversight and Government Reform |quote=said he was "partially" wrong to resist regulation of some securities}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-10-24/greenspan-admits-some-guilt-over-financial-crisis/551992|title=Greenspan admits some guilt over financial crisis|work=[[ABC News (Australia)|ABC News]]|date=October 24, 2008|access-date=December 10, 2017}}</ref> Referring to his free-market ideology, Greenspan said: "I have found a flaw. I don't know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact." When Representative [[Henry Waxman]] (D-CA) pressed him to clarify his words. "In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working," Waxman said. "Absolutely, precisely", Greenspan replied. "You know, that's precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well."<ref name="NYT">{{cite news |url= https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/greenspans-mea-culpa/|title=Greenspan's Mea Culpa |work=The New York Times |first= David |last= Leonhardt |date=October 23, 2008 |access-date=June 22, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090621063537/https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/greenspans-mea-culpa/ |archive-date=June 21, 2009 |url-status=live|author-link=David Leonhardt }}</ref> Greenspan admitted fault<ref name="The Monthly">{{cite web |url=http://themonthly.com.au/node/1785/page/1 |title=Comment: The Corporate Fallacy |work= The Monthly |first=Noel |last=Pearson |date=July 2009}}</ref> in opposing regulation of derivatives and acknowledged that financial institutions didn't protect shareholders and investments as well as he expected.

[[Matt Taibbi]] described the [[Greenspan put]] and its bad consequences saying: "every time the banks blew up a speculative bubble, they could go back to the Fed and borrow money at zero or one or two percent, and then start the game all over", thereby making it "almost impossible" for the banks to lose money.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/2/22/matt_taibbi_why_isnt_wall_street_in_jail|title=Matt Taibbi: "Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?" (Complete Interview) |date=February 22, 2011 |work=[[Democracy Now!]] |access-date=May 20, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110518172718/http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/2/22/matt_taibbi_why_isnt_wall_street_in_jail |archive-date=May 18, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> He also called Greenspan a "classic [[Confidence trick|con man]]" who, through political savvy, "flattered and bullshitted his way up the [[Matterhorn]] of American power and&nbsp;... jacked himself off to the attention of Wall Street for 20 consecutive years".<ref name="taibbi">{{cite book |first=Matt |last=Taibbi |author-link=Matt Taibbi |title=Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America |publisher=[[Spiegel & Grau]] |year=2010 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/griftopiabubblem0000taib/page/35 35–36] |isbn=978-0-385-52995-2 |title-link=Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America }}</ref>

In the documentary film ''[[Inside Job (2010 film)|Inside Job]]'', Greenspan is cited as one of the persons responsible for the [[2008 financial crisis]]. He is also named in [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] as one of the "25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis".<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1877351,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090414072623/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1877351,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 14, 2009 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |title=Complete List&nbsp;– 25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis |access-date=May 1, 2013}}</ref>