We're all Greenspanians now

Martin Feldstein typifies the response of many economists these days when asked about Federal Reserve policy amid what appears to be another collapsing asset bubble - lower interest rates and do it fast.

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When Nixon closing the gold window in 1971, forever severing the link between the U.S. currency and gold, this led to deficit spending and trade imbalances the likes of which the world had never seen.

When Alan Greenspan began ignoring (some would say encouraging) asset bubbles, forever severing the link between monetary policy and asset prices, this led to one financial bubble after another.

In both cases it may have seemed as though there was no other choice, but there was.