Product Description

No matter who you are-investor, trader, homeowner, 401(k) holder, or CEO-you are bound to feel the impact of Alan Greenspan's “Age of Ignorance” for years to come.

According to MSN Money columnist William A. Fleckenstein, Greenspan's nearly 19-year career as Federal Reserve Chairman is even worse than anyone imagined. Labeled “Mr. Bubble” by the New York Times, Greenspan was nothing less than a serial bubble blower with a long history of bad decision-making. His famous “Greenspan Put” fueled the perception of a Goldilocks economy-but, as this explosive exposé reveals, the bear has finally caught up with Goldilocks.

Using transcripts of Greenspan's FOMC meetings as well as testimony before Congress, this eye-opening book delivers a timeline of his most devastating mistakes and weaves together the connection between every economic calamity of the past 19 years:

• The stock market crash of 1987
• The Savings & Loan crisis
• The collapse of Long Term Capital Management
• The tech bubble of 2000
• The feared Y2K disaster
• The credit bubble and real estate crisis of 2007

Fleckenstein explains just how far-reaching Greenspan's mess has been flung, and presents damning evidence that contradicts the former Fed chief's public naiveté concerning shifts in the market and economy. He also points to a disturbing fact, that throughout his career, Greenspan not only made costly mistakes, but made the same ones-over and over again. And not only was he never able to recognize or admit to those mistakes, he constantly rewrote his own history to justify them.

Greenspan's Bubbles offers a lock-stock-and-barrel portrait of a flawed but fascinating man whose words and actions have led a whole generation astray, and whose legacy will continue to challenge us in the years ahead.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3436 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-16
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

From the Back Cover

PRAISE FOR

GREENSPAN'S BUBBLES

“After reading Greenspan's Bubbles you will have no respect for the Fed! It's a must-read…in it, the authors demystify the belief that the Fed 'solves' problems when, in fact, it is directly responsible for a colossal destruction of wealth of the median household and of the U.S. currency through its irresponsible monetary policies.”-Marc Faber, editor of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report

“Greenspan for Mt. Rushmore? Not if Bill Fleckenstein has anything to say about it.”-James Grant, editor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer

“In his typically engaging style, Bill Fleckenstein pops the Greenspan bubble…presenting compelling and convincing evidence that the former Fed chief got us into this mess...”-Herb Greenberg, Senior Columnist, MarketWatch.com

About the Author

William A. Fleckenstein is president of Fleckenstein Capital, a money management firm based in Seattle. He writes a daily Market Rap column for his Web site, Fleckensteincapital.com, as well as the popular column Contrarian Chronicles for MSN Money.

Frederick Sheehan is a former Director of Asset Allocation Services at John Hancock Financial Services. He has written for Marc Faber's Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, Whiskey & Gunpowder, and the Prudent Bear Web sites.

Customer Reviews

Basic look at Greenspan's missteps
From almost the first page of the book, you know William Fleckenstein is NOT a Greenspan fan. Through the course of the book his bias against Greenspan is apparent, as he shifts from characterizing Greenspan as either ignorant, arrogant, naive or lazy in his stewarship of the Fed. That being said, Greenspan has given him much data to back up his assertions, and while a more balanced view might have left this reader more confident that the facts weren't skewed, the details of Greenspan's many misses are laid out over the tech and housing bubbles in stark tones. The fact that Mr. Greenspan has spent much recent time second-guessing the current Fed actions while attempting to burnish his own legacy makes the book welcome counterbalance.

Required reading for investors and the general public
This is an easy to read attack on the Fed and it's former chairman. This book provides strong evidence that Greenspan (and the rest of the Open Market committee) of the Fed played a crucial role in creating both the stock market bubble of the late 90s and the housing bubble of recent years. The author also provides several examples of Greenspan's conflicting statements regarding his opinions of these events before, during, and after they occured. Makes you wonder what Greenspan actually believes or even understands.

Investors in the late 90s read the signals the Fed.'s monetary policy that there was no stock market bubble and proceeded to inflate it further. After that bubble blew, the Fed lowered interest rates so far that consumers followed the money and inflated the housing market. Then Greenspan told everyone they should be taking ARM loans just before the Fed started raising rates and stuck it to those borrowers. Simply amazing!

Of course, the Fed isn't the only culprit here. As a society, Americans want to continue their irresponsible practices, then expect government (in these cases, the Fed) to bail us out. Where does it end?

Green Spans Bubbles
Greenspan's Bubbles: The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve
There seems to be too much blame to spread around for the sub-prime issue.
It's like "teflon", slides off everyone enough so no one gets ..... And this book does not pin it down, helps for the future... maybe.
J.J.R