Comments on: Greenspan Speaks http://themoderatevoice.com/15210/greenspan-speaks/ An Internet hub with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, indies, centrists, moderates, and right Mon, 28 May 2012 02:02:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: DLS http://themoderatevoice.com/15210/greenspan-speaks/comment-page-1/#comment-98941 DLS Thu, 20 Sep 2007 17:08:27 +0000 http://themoderatevoice.com/war/iraq/15210/greenspan-speaks/#comment-98941 Of course it was about oil. The early 1990s war was also about oil. Security of oil supplies is the #1 vital US and Western interest in the Middle East. It has nothing to do with the lefty-loony "looting" charges that echo bin Laden and other delusional fanatics. Nor was the war about what is obviously a distant second vital US and Western interest, the security of Israel. (Definitely a distant second as far as US policy, including Bush administration policy, has been concerned.) Greenspan had more to say in his book, including a scolding of Bush and of Congressional Republicans for, well, being much more like Democrats in that (the object of Greenspan's criticism) there was no discipline exercised on federal spending, discipline that is long, long overdue. (The poor behavior of Congressional Republicans as well as of the Bush administration, as well as obvious dissatisfaction with the situation in Iraq, was the source of the change in 1996 election results compared to previous election results.) Greenspan also once more expressed concern with growing inequality of income (and wealth, possibly), something not only recent (anti-Bush) but a concern of his for <a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/Speeches/1998/19980828.htm" rel="nofollow">several years</a>. While nobody sane can expect pure equality of income or wealth, and nobody sane seeks it (it is a destructive impulse and objective), at the same time, an obvious problem we see in Third World nations is extreme inequality of income and wealth, i.e., "too much"; how much is too much? Greenspan fears we may be reaching too much here in the USA. He's hardly some radical. (His comments on inequality were, of course, solicited with some gusto on NPR.) Of course it was about oil. The early 1990s war was also about oil. Security of oil supplies is the #1 vital US and Western interest in the Middle East. It has nothing to do with the lefty-loony “looting” charges that echo bin Laden and other delusional fanatics. Nor was the war about what is obviously a distant second vital US and Western interest, the security of Israel. (Definitely a distant second as far as US policy, including Bush administration policy, has been concerned.)

Greenspan had more to say in his book, including a scolding of Bush and of Congressional Republicans for, well, being much more like Democrats in that (the object of Greenspan’s criticism) there was no discipline exercised on federal spending, discipline that is long, long overdue. (The poor behavior of Congressional Republicans as well as of the Bush administration, as well as obvious dissatisfaction with the situation in Iraq, was the source of the change in 1996 election results compared to previous election results.)

Greenspan also once more expressed concern with growing inequality of income (and wealth, possibly), something not only recent (anti-Bush) but a concern of his for several years. While nobody sane can expect pure equality of income or wealth, and nobody sane seeks it (it is a destructive impulse and objective), at the same time, an obvious problem we see in Third World nations is extreme inequality of income and wealth, i.e., “too much”; how much is too much? Greenspan fears we may be reaching too much here in the USA. He’s hardly some radical. (His comments on inequality were, of course, solicited with some gusto on NPR.)

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