Now, clearly, out of control

The man is now clearly out of control, perhaps headed for some kind of subprime meltdown of his own - former Fed chief Alan Greenspan makes some even more astonishing remarks in this story from Reuters.

Commenting on the current mess in real estate he noted:

"It's a difficult situation, there is an enormous overhang on the real estate market. Many buildings which just have been finished can't be sold ...

"So far, prices have dropped only slightly. But it was enough to cause alarm around the world. Prices are going to fall much lower yet.
...
"There is no doubt about the fact that low interest rates for long-term government bonds have caused the real estate bubble in the United States.

"The Federal Reserve began a series of interest rate increases in 2004. We were hoping to bring the speculative excesses in the real estate sector under control. We failed. We tried it again in 2005. Failure.

"Nobody could do anything about it, neither us nor the European Central Bank. We were powerless."

Just last month he commented to the Wall Street Journal:

History tells us it’s far better to have people periodically going to excess with its adverse consequences than to try to block it off in the beginning.

So which is it?

Did the Greenspan Fed try to stop the housing bubble or did they think it was, in the scheme of things, a good idea?