This may be revisionist history

The next thing you know, former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan is going to say that he predicted the housing bust all along. A simple search shows a pattern of revisionist history that now seems to be common.
The two references above are stories by Reuters, the first in conjunction with the promotion of the new book just two days ago and the second from October 9th, 2006.

Of course, last year's housing assessment was plastered over newspapers across the country in full-page ads by the National Association of Realtors, leading to what must surely be viewed as "ill-advised" home purchases almost one year hence.

Oops!

The mainstream media has yet to cast much of a disparaging eye on the source of the current housing mess, hedge fund mess, and general credit-market slow motion melt-down.

Long-time Fed watcher Greg Robb at CBS Marketwatch seems to gladly accept what he hears from "The Maestro".

Former Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan says he tried to raise mortgage rates to head off a housing bubble, but the effort came to naught because of "global forces" that had the effect of keeping long-term interest rates low.

In an interview early Monday with NBC News's "Today Show," Greenspan said he does not accept blame for the nation's housing bubble.

He noted that 20 to 30 other countries have experienced housing bubbles, adding that these were "all caused by the same thing, this global sharp decline in long-term interest rates, specifically mortgage rates.

"We tried to get mortgage rates up. We failed. The reason we failed is global forces are overwhelming," he said.

That's the nature of the mainstream media apparently - just repeat what is said.

As a minimum, it could be mentioned that the central bankers in Europe have screamed at the makers of U.S. monetary policy for not "leaning against" asset prices.

William Greider writing in this morning's San Francisco Chronicle is less accepting of the former Fed chairman's take on things.

The lies of Alan Greenspan
William Greider
Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Alan Greenspan has come back from the tomb of history to correct the record. He did not make any mistakes in his 18-year tenure as Federal Reserve chairman. He did not endorse the regressive Bush tax cuts of 2001 that pumped up the federal deficits and aggravated inequalities. He did not cause the housing bubble that is now in collapse. He did not ignore the stock market bubble that subsequently melted away and cost investors $6 trillion. He did not say the Iraq war is "largely about oil."

Check the record. These are all lies.

It all sounds like revisionist history to me.