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07 Apr 2010 10:17

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Biz: Alan Greenspan: The mortgage crisis not caused by the poor

  • The house price bubble, the most prominent global bubble in generations, was caused by lower interest rates but. … it was long-term mortgage rates that galvanized prices, not the overnight rates of central banks, as has become the seeming conventional wisdom.
  • Former Federal Reserve Chairman (and all-around smart guy) Alan Greenspan • Speaking in business-ese about something which we can put much more simply: Low interest rates that allowed low-income people to buy houses didn’t cause the housing crisis. Instead, the culprit was a couple levels up the food chain. Speak English, Alan. (Greenspan, by the way, is attempting to defend his legacy here.) source

11 Jun 2009 10:43

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Biz: Was Bank of America strong-armed into taking on Merrill Lynch?

  • A buncha e-mails say yes. Remember the fun times of about eight months ago, when the economy was going in the basement and all these unlikely mergers of huge financial firms happened? Well, Bank of America’s takeover of Merrill Lynch was one. And according to e-mails between the feds and the firm, they may have been pressured into it by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. After the deal went through, BofA’s shares took a nosedive and the government had to bail them out big time. source