Quote for the day - Alan Greenspan [update]

As if he was speaking yesterday, instead of when he just retired:

" Relying on policymakers to perceive when speculative asset bubbles have developed and then to implement timely policies to address successfully these misalignments in asset prices is simply not realistic."

The success of Greenspan himself in producing several speculative asset bubbles -- not to mention the present disaster that is now bursting in our faces -- is all the more evidence for his observation.

The man has sold out everything he ever said he stood for, for a career only a second-hander could want -- and is revealed now as a fraud, a phony and the living example that one man in charge of a printing press cannot do anything to improve markets, but he sure as hell can destroy them.

UPDATE: Willie's comment nails it:

    I just can't believe this man and the media.
    The evasion is phenomenal.
    Here is the man who sets the price of credit, centrally, proclaiming that his "free market ways have failed."
    WTF!!!??? WHAT free market ways?
    Damn it he sets the price of credit!
    If Alan Greenspan poured water into the petrol tank of a car, and the car failed to start, he would proclaim that petrol has failed the automotive industry.
    The media would nod, the politicians would agree.

I'll have more to say tomorrow, but that summary will be hard to beat.