Greenspan: Another crisis is inevitable

It's not clear which is worse when it comes to former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan:

1. That he was head of the central bank and left such a mess
2. That, in retirement, groups continue to invite him to speak
3. That the media covers these speeches so thoroughly
4. That there isn't more outrage about items 1, 2, and 3 above

The most recent examples of items 2 and 3 come via this report at CNBC.

Another global financial crisis is inevitable because human nature always reverts to "speculative excesses" during a period of sustained prosperity, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said.

"The crisis will happen again but it will be different," he told BBC Two's "The Love of Money" television series. "That is the unquenchable capability of human beings when confronted with long periods of prosperity to presume that that will continue," he said.

Greenspan, speaking to the BBC to mark the first anniversary of the fall of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, said Britain will be hit worse than the U.S. by the subsequent worldwide financial crisis and global recession because it has a globally-focused economy.

There is almost always a caveat in these reports and this one is no different, noting that "his record is under scrutiny", but that just doesn't seem like it's enough anymore.

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