Alan Greenspan and the Seven Deadly Sins
Monday, October 27, 2008
The Globe & Mail (Canada’s National Newspaper) for October 24 had a banner headline (all the way across the front page), “Canada Teeters on the Brink of Recession.” Just underneath is a huge four-column photo of Alan Greenspan. The former god of finance said, “I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms…Something which looked to be a very solid edifice and, indeed, a critical pillar to market competition and free markets did break down. And…that shocked me. I still do not fully understand why it happened.”
Greenspan is shocked, shocked that even guardians of the public trust like bankers could perhaps be subject to–greed.
A Globe & Mail columnist wrote that “Alan Greenspan is having a crisis of faith.” Maybe Ayn Rand is not Holy Writ after all.
Of course this is an overly simplistic take on the complexities at work in the financial meltdown, but from a Christian perspective it is certainly accurate to say that banks and the Federal Reserve are among the principalities and powers and should be regarded as such, with a healthy dose of suspicion.
Greenspan admits ‘mistake’ on bank regulation
by Barrie McKenna
The Globe & Mail
October 24, 2008
