Columnist William Fleckenstein says Don’t Take Mortgage Advice from Greenspan.
Before quoting from the above, I would just note that Greenspan’s latest comments reminded me of a speech he gave on March 6, 2000, which I have dubbed “An Ode to Technology.” In the speech, he waxed on about the wonders of technology and how it had brought us a new era and all that other stuff. Folks may not remember that date, but it was four days before the Nasdaq Composite (COMPX) hit its all-time high of 5,048.62. Despite the recovery over the past year ago, the composite is still down nearly 60% from the March 2000 peak. This is not the first time Easy Al has been way off.
On March 7, 2000, I wrote a column called “Alan Greenspan: Friend or Foe” that chronicled some of his prior quotes, speeches and the like. It includes his Jan. 7, 1973, utterance (right before the recession that ranks as our worst, at least until we get through the one we’re in but haven’t completed): “It is very rare that you can be as unqualifiedly bullish as you can be now.” That, coupled with his ode to technology and cluelessness about bubbles (which folks have seen real-time), is a pretty fair indictment.
