Greenspan was very clear on why The Great Corporations want the 99% to live in desperation...

[Triana]

...our Corporate Overlords like things just the way they are. Corporations run and control the world. World governments are purchased, controlled, impotent and weak (you know "smaller government&quot , and 99% of the population is desperate to just barely survive and thus ill-equipped to fight any of this. IntereSTINK how that worked out.

[GeorgeGist]

1. His middle name ...

Is Dick.

[TBF]

2. That's exactly what they want -

and why they are the enemy.

[Adrahil]

3. I'm curious about when he said that and the context...

... I ask because I always new he was an Ayn Rand acolyte. But about 4-5 months ago, I saw an interview with him where he said that the 2008 crash had forced him to rethink many of his views and that he no longer believed some things he used to believe (He didn't elaborate in the interview, and I am not really interested in reading his book). But this post piques my interest somewhat.

[starroute]

13. The change was just about the need for regulation

Basically, he discovered that the market is not a perfect, self-regulating system. And he was shocked. Shocked!

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/10/alan-greenspan-rediscovers-keynes-sort-of.html

What are these earth-shattering findings? Hitherto, Greenspan explained, he had been thinking and acting on the premise that people (and financial institutions) act in their own long-run self-interest, and that the rest of their behavior is random. But actually people’s actions are often driven by “so-called animal spirits … they are deep-seated aspects of human behavior. People act in predictable ways.” Rather than behaving like omnipotent calculating machines, they respond to things like fear, greed, euphoria, and impatience, Greenspan said. Really? Yes, really.

Greenspan explained that in his book he discusses ten of the traits he has identified (“inbred propensities” is the phrase he uses for them), addresses various attempts to measure them, and then brings them all together. “I think I’ve made significant progress,” he added immodestly, and, to illustrate what he meant, he brought up Jane Austen—yes, that Jane Austen. Although her novels were set in early-nineteenth-century England, teen-age girls are still doing exactly the same things now as they did in her writings, he said, adding, “We are a homogenous species.”

[Adrahil]

14. Cheers, thanks for that. NT

[BelgianMadCow]

4. Second warning

one more truthspreading and it's room 101 for you.

[aquart]

5. Odd definition of "healthy."

[al bupp]

6. This does not appear to be a direct quote, but rather a paraphrase

The paraphrase appears to come from a Noam Chomsky article which references this testimony before the senate in 1997.

In my opinion, it is a very loose paraphrase indeed. Greenspan seems to be wondering for how long workers will be willing to trade relatively higher job security for relatively lower wages, and what effect this dynamic has on the economy.

[L0oniX]

12. Good find.

This idea is sometimes made quite overt. So when Alan Greenspan was testifying before Congress in 1997 on the marvels of the economy he was running, he said straight out that one of the bases for its economic success was imposing what he called “greater worker insecurity.” If workers are more insecure, that’s very “healthy” for the society, because if workers are insecure they won’t ask for wages, they won’t go on strike, they won’t call for benefits; they’ll serve the masters gladly and passively. And that’s optimal for corporations’ economic health. At the time, everyone regarded Greenspan’s comment as very reasonable, judging by the lack of reaction and the great acclaim he enjoyed. Well, transfer that to the universities: how do you ensure “greater worker insecurity”? Crucially, by not guaranteeing employment, by keeping people hanging on a limb than can be sawed off at any time, so that they’d better shut up, take tiny salaries, and do their work; and if they get the gift of being allowed to serve under miserable conditions for another year, they should welcome it and not ask for any more. That’s the way you keep societies efficient and healthy from the point of view of the corporations. And as universities move towards a corporate business model, precarity is exactly what is being imposed. And we’ll see more and more of it.

[MattSh]

7. Having no one who can afford to buy their junk is optimal?

Where the hell did he get his economics degree from, Cracker Jack U?

[ladjf]

9. I believe he started out as a bar room pianist. nt

[notadmblnd]

8. On the other hand, when the 99% have nothing left to lose.....

well, I'm sure you can use your imagination.

[jsr]

10. +1

[jwirr]

11. Actually he is telling the truth from the point of view of the corporations. From our viewpoint he

and his corporations are the enemy. We need to realize we are in a real fight with these greedy devils.

[Triana]

16. Exactly! n/t

[woo me with science]

15. kick

[polichick]

17. "that's very healthy for the society" - For HIS chunk of society.

[Dirty Socialist]

18. Yes, Massa!

Kick

[Cha]

19. Fucking satan..

[Octafish]

20. The Dark Age of Money: Milton Friedman and the Rise of Monetary Fascism

It's a Chicago School Thing.



America, we have a problem, a financial problem that gets ZERO coverage in Corporate McPravda:

Milton Friedman and the Rise of Monetary Fascism

The Dark Age of Money

by JAMES C. KENNEDY
CounterPunch Oct. 24, 2012

EXCERPT...

Monetary Fascism was created and propagated through the Chicago School of Economics. Milton Friedman’s collective works constitute the foundation of Monetary Fascism. Knowing that the term ’Fascism’ was universally unpopular; Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics masquerade these works as ‘Capitalism’ and ’Free Market’ economics.

SNIP...

The fundamental difference between Adam Smith’s free market capitalism and Friedman’s ‘free market capitalism’ is that Friedman’s is a hyper extractive model, the kind that creates and maintains Third-World-Countries and Banana-Republics, without geo-political borders.

If you say that this is nothing new, you miss the point. Friedman does not differentiate between some third world country and his own. The ultimate difference is that Friedman has created a model that sanctions and promotes the exploitation of his own country, in fact every country, for the benefit of the investor, money the uber-wealthy. He dressed up this noxious ideology as ‘free market capitalism’ and then convinced most of the world to embrace it as their economic salvation.

SNIP...

[font color="green"]Monetary Fascism, as conceived by Friedman, uses the powers of the state to put the interest of money and the financial class above and beyond all other forms of industry (and other stake holders) and the state itself.[/font color]

SNIP...

Money has become the state and the traditional state is forced to serve money’s interests. Everywhere the Financial Class is openly lording over sovereign nations. Ireland, Greece and Spain are subject to ultimatums and remember Hank Paulson’s $700 billion extortion from the U.S. Congress. The $700 billion was just the wedge. Thanks to unlimited access to the Discount Window, Quantitative Easing and other taxpayer funded debt-swap bailouts the total transfers to the financial industry exceeded $16 trillion as of July 2010 according to a Federal Reserve Audit. All of this was dumped on the taxpayer and it is still growing.

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/24/the-dark-age-of-money/

We need to get back to the day when people were more important than profits; when peace trumped money. I'm so old, I remember when that was what being a Democrat stood for.

[woo me with science]

21. Thank you. Should be an OP.

[enough]

22. We should note again that this is NOT in fact a quote from Greenspan.

He did not actually say this.

If you read the Greenspan testimony conveniently linked by Chomsky, you will see that Chomsky is paraphrasing and interpreting what Greenspan said. Chomsky himself does not promulgate false quotations, and it doesn't help us if we do.

[jmrag]

23. Where and When

I don't believe he said these words. I've have been all over the Federal Reserve site. I've read his testimony and his speeches. Can you please tell me where this comes from specifically.
Thank you.