The document discusses various perspectives on Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve. It includes quotes from Greenspan about interest rates, the difficulty of predicting human behavior in the economy, and the easing of turmoil in financial markets. The document also mentions criticism of Greenspan related to the subprime mortgage crisis and questions about whether central banks are necessary in a free market society.

1. Attitudes Towards Alan Greenspan

2. So it’s all about perception then. It’s about making people believe the system is sound. If the stock market is high, people feel confident in spending, and if it lowers, they feel less confident? I was telling my colleagues the other day...I’d been dealing with these big mathematical models for forecasting the economy, and I’m looking at what’s going on the last few weeks and I say, “Y’know, if I could figure out a way to determine whether or not people are more fearful, or changing to euphoric... I don’t need any of this other stuff. I could forecast the economy better than any way I know. The trouble is, we can’t figure that out. I’ve been in the forecasting business for 50 years, and I’m no better than I ever was, and nobody else is either.” When you say “Open Market,” I always wonder... Why do we have a Fed? Wouldn’t the market take care of interest rates and all that? Why do we have someone adjusting rates if we are a free market society? Google Video Alan Greenspan is widely quoted in the world’s financial media The former chief of the U.S. Federal Reserve system is right about globalization The release of Alan Greenspan’s ghostwritten memoirs The Age of Turbulence has elicited charges that he was not such a great central banker after all Google Blog Search As head of the nation's central bank from 1987 to 2006, he used often-obscure language to telegraph signals of comfort or alarm to power brokers in Washington and on Wall Street. His aura grew. Many Americans came to believe that he had cracked the economy's code. The sub-prime crisis in the US that has seen central banks all over the world scrambling desperately to contain the fallout has suddenly brought central banking into drawing room conversations. Combine that with Greenspan’s larger-than-life role through most of the latter part of the twentieth century and you already have two ingredients for success. Add the third, a clear, if not racy (come to think of it, can something like central banking ever be racy?) style of writing and you know why The Age of Turbulence is there at the top and likely to stay there for a while. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Sunday the rate of U.S. economic growth was slowing Google News Neutral Quotes Positive Quotes Negative Quotes

3. Greenspan also said in an interview on CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer” that the turmoil caused by the subprime mortgage crisis was easing and financial markets were beginning to go back to normal Even Alan Greenspan said he thought we were onto something new He was on the Daily Show a couple weeks ago for an interview, and as always he impressed me with his intellect BlogPulse In his book Age of Turbulence, Adventures in a New World, Greenspan, writes: “Britain’s evolution from one of the most ossified economies in the years following World War II to one of the most open economies in the world is reflected in the intellectual journey of Gordon Brown.” Greenspan has been impressed by new PM Gordon Brown, and his commitment to ‘globalisation and free markets’ and the fact that he ‘did not seem interested in reversing much of what Margaret Thatcher had changed’. Former US Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, has spoken of ‘difficulties’ ahead for home owners in the UK, with rising interest rates likely to bring rising house prices to a halt. Technorati As a boy in the 1930s, Alan Greenspan found fascination not in bankers but in the telegraph operators who were a staple in Western movies. Greenspan doesn't pretend that all debates about capitalism have ended So we’re not a free market then - there is an invisible...a “benevolent” hand that touches us... Ask.com Blog Search Neutral Quotes Positive Quotes Negative Quotes

4. Congressman Paul told me Thursday that Greenspan is used to these out-of-the-box questions from him that cast doubt on the very legitimacy of the Federal Reserve. "My questions are always on the same subject. If I don't bring up the issue of hard money vs. fiat money, Greenspan himself does." But Greenspan did answer, and if you read the transcripts you'll find that he gave a respectful answer - perhaps even a thoughtful answer - to what might seem like a deliberately provocative question - perhaps even an off-the-wall question. Conventional wisdom is quickly congealing around the idea that Alan Greenspan, presiding genius of the dot-conomy, is to blame for the subprime mortgage mess. Digg Moods tend to change, and rapidly, without clear warning. Alan Greenspan spoke to this when he said "History tells us that sharp reversals in confidence happen abruptly, most often with little advance notice. Apparently even Alan Greenspan agrees it was. The former chairman of the federal reserve said, “the Iraq War is largely about oil.” Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has been in the news lately trying to pretend he’s had nothing to do with the slow-motion economic meltdown America is currently experiencing in the housing, job and labor market. Icerocket Neutral Quotes Positive Quotes Negative Quotes