1,000 Words: Greenspan Power Outage Edition

Our White House Photo Blog features this photo of former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan testifying before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. As luck would have it, this also happened to be the moment when the power went out at the Rayburn House Office Building:

Over at the Curious Capitalist, our colleague Stephen Gandel has this account of what Greenspan had to say.

Related Topics: alan greenspan, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, power outage, recession, 1,000 Words, Economy
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  • http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

    If nothing else, it’s worth clicking over just to see the phrase ‘violated the canine’ used in a real sentence.

  • newfreedomblog

    “Turn the lights out, the party is over”!!
    .
    As Greenspan says “if I would have told them a complete melt down was coming, they wouldn’t have believed me anyways”.
    .
    Now Greece is on the precipice of collapse. California is totally bankrupt. Social justice programs do not work in a capitalists economy. Redistribution of wealth, the stalwart over-all policy foundation for the Obama Administration is putting this country in a dire and inevitable position. Complete failure. With over 50% of the people in this country not paying taxes or receiving Government benefits, logic and common sense tells you it cannot continue.
    .
    http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100408/D9EURADO0.html
    .
    Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, prepare yourself for the coming economic collapse for America. You do not have long to prepare.

  • nibblybits

    I wonder if Greenspan is truly aware of how his reputation and legacy have been permanently tarnished if not trashed. That he was truly and utterly wrong (and not 30% wrong as he testified). If he still sees himself as a superior John Galt figure who is misunderstood by an ignorant unappreciative public or as just a shadow deserving of society’s scorn.

  • http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

    Social justice programs do not work in a capitalists economy.

    But parasitic financial systems that use standard capatilistic ‘innovation’ to create paper wealth out of vapor work just fine……

  • FlownOver

    While expecting – and getting – a Bush Bailout from the Treasury when it all goes south.

  • sacredh

    Greenspan takes advantage of the darkness to steal pens and paperclips.

  • sacredh

    Greenspan: Congresswoman Bachman, that’s not a microphone, but here’s $50 to keep on trying to get it to work.

  • http://patricksartor.wordpress.com patricksartor

    Appeasing conservatives, Greenspan leads a seance to conjuring the souls of our founding fathers to ask what they think of regulating derivatives.

  • sacredh

    Greenspan pauses as the sound of zippers being lowered fills the room.

  • sacredh

    A ghostly apparition at the end of the table informs Greenspan that he will be visited by the three spirits of recessions past.

  • kevin

    Randism can never fail. It can only be failed.

  • kathy

    FTW

  • sacredh

    Greenspan: And when i turned around to ask the hitchhiker where she wanted to be let out….she was GONE!

  • grape_crush

    “This isn’t a problem…shoot, I’ve pretty much kept myself in the dark about what’s happening in the financial world for years…”

  • sacredh

    Chairman: Mr. Greenspan, that’s all very interesting I’m sure, but do you think Tiger will win the Masters?

  • earljr1

    Nothing new here, Obama’s solemn pledge to keep transparency in his administration is shown to be fraudulent. “Change you can believe in” means keeping the public in the dark, so why is anyone surprised the lights went out? They are going to STAY out, as long as this misfit remains in office.

  • sacredh

    Greenspan: It’s not my fault. Madam Zola assured me the tea leaves predicted contiuned growth.

  • kevin

    Excellent.

  • sacredh

    Greenspan: I did what I had to do to survive. Cheney wanted to take me hunting and Senator Vitter kept insisting that he could change me.

  • kevin

    Yes, aside from running on a clear platform of HCR, holding more than a year of committee hearings and floor debate, personally leading countless town hall meetings with Q&A sessions, giving two speeches to a full session of Congress, and delivering the promise to have online publication of the full text of the bill, Obama kept us totally in the dark about health care reform.
    .
    If you’re in the dark, it’s not because the president kept things from you; it’s because you get your news from Fox.

  • grape_crush

    “We can’t afford to keep the lights on all the time, Mr. Greenspan. After you pushed for the deregulation of the energy market, the cost of electricity went through the roof…”

  • nflfoghorn

    “…Ladies and Gentlemen, prepare yourself for the coming egg on my face. You do not have long to prepare.”
    .
    Fixed it for you.

  • nflfoghorn

    “Well, in the dark Andrea actually thinks I’m Fabio.”

  • Friar Tuck

    “I am the Ghost of Recessions Past. In life, my name was Samuel Insull . . .”

  • grape_crush

    “Of course it’s Greenspan who’s snoring. The guy’s been asleep for the past decade.”

  • sacredh

    Greenspan: Mr. Chairman, will you please inform the esteemed lady in back of me that if she kicks my chair one more time I’m going to punch her f’ing lights out?

  • sacredh

    Andrea is wanted on several drug related charges.

  • sacredh

    Chains. My baby’s got me wrapped up in chains. And they’re not the kind… that you can seeeee.

  • nflfoghorn

    Today’s not April 1 so…..ya THINK??

  • grape_crush

    This must be the part in that Paranormal Market Activity movie where the Ayn Rand demon possesses Greenspan and uses him to murder the economy.

  • Friar Tuck

    “She got me tied down with battleship chain,
    Fifty foot long wit’ a two-ton anchor . . .”

  • sacredh

    Speaking of April 1st…I was very busy. I had my stepson tell his grandmother that his girlfriend was pregnant. I asked the lady in the meat department at my supermarket if she could get me some human steaks (I said I was willing to pay whatever she wanted). I called my boss and asked him if he could bring bail money to the county jail and get me out so I wouldn’t be late for work. I called my mom and asked her if I could use her spare bedroom for prostitution. I called my sister and asked if I could stay at her house because my wife had caught me in bed with her mom. I called my sister in law (a nurse) and told her I had a gerbil stuck in my butt and asked her if it was safe to use the Shop Vac to get it out. I also called my oldest brother and asked him why he had never told me that I was adopted.

  • deconstructiva

    Greenspan: “Yes, it’s true, Greenspan is NOT my real name. I am …John Galt.”
    Angelides: “Uh, you’re supposed to make the lights of New York go out, not DC.”
    Greenspan: “What, and mess up the Mets game? Are you crazy?”

  • crdvis16

    Holy crap Sacred, you know how to celebrate April 1st!

  • deconstructiva

    As Greenspan smiles his evil smile, the commission whispers in the dark:
    Born: “They cut the power.”
    Angelides: “They cut the power? What do you mean ‘they cut the power’? How could they cut the power, man? They’re animals!”
    Born: “We’d better get back, ’cause it’ll be dark soon, and they mostly come at night… mostly.”

  • earljr1

    Kevin, apparently YOUR lights dimmed long ago. NOTHING was transparent about HCR. It took “special” back room deals to get it passed and the promise to openly debate on c-span, was a bald face lie!

  • deconstructiva

    Angelides: “Uh, isn’t that your wife you’re referring to?”

  • http://patricksartor.wordpress.com patricksartor

    Earl,
    .
    Republicans were so unwilling to negotiate moderate and conservative Democrats stood in their place to water down the bill from single payer to this.
    .
    Outside of knocking on your door and personally asking you what to do, I can not see any way this could have been more transparent or democratic (small d).

  • deconstructiva

    As lovely KT packs her boxes, these include all correspondence with Rusty + the planned correspondence (aka revenge) when THE apology arrived (which never did). The sheer physical mass of these in one place caused a gravitational warp. The electromagnetic pulse emitted from the warp fried the electrical grid and blacked out the entire East Coast. I’m guessing those items get pitched but the Nixon souvenirs are keepers.

  • sacredh

    We’re going to miss you KT.

    OTOH, I’ve only been holding back because I never wanted to offend the best writer TIME had. Release the hounds! A picture of Palin and Bachman together would be a great going away present. Hint hint.

  • freeinpa

    Later Greenspan brought out Big Bird and Sesame Street to spell derivatives for the Democrats on the panel

  • freeinpa

    I told Pelosi if they kept spending they won’t be able to afford the electric bill

  • square1

    Now Greece is on the precipice of collapse. California is totally bankrupt. Social justice programs do not work in a capitalists economy.
    .
    Let’s see. For 50+ years, America’s social safety nets and government regulations successfully staved off the worst economic panics, built up America’s middle class, and made America the financial rock of the world. Then, in the past 15 years, rampant deregulation of the financial and energy industries drove the world to the brink of worldwide economic collapse (despite the utter absence of any significant external factors, such as droughts, major wars, or plagues). The middle class is under siege. And California and Greece (and Iceland, and numerous U.S. municipalities, among many others) have been devastated by an unregulated, speculating and deceptive financial-services industry.
    .
    If that doesn’t prove the strengths of unregulated capitalism and the weaknesses of modest government oversight over the general welfare of the citizenry then I don’t know what does.

  • square1

    Apparently they need to put a larger fuse in the Rayburn bullsh-t detector.

  • http://patricksartor.wordpress.com patricksartor

    Reeper,
    .
    Why don’t you explain derivatives.
    .
    I bet you’re a regular John Maynard Keynes.
    .
    I eagerly await to hear your brilliant response.

  • http://funks2.wordpress.com Michael Funk

    OK, it’s a big issue that Congress was placed in some sort of trance by Greenspan for so long. A larger problem though, is what sort of mechanism do we have in place to impede the same kind of behavior now? For an interesting take on the relationship between financial acumen and greed, you may want to read an interesting article at:

    http://funks2.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/when-being-greedy-trumped-being-smart-where-were-the-geniuses/

    At least I think it’s interesting. I wrote it. Enjoy!

  • hippooath

    Greenspan:
    .
    Now let me demonstrate to fox news viewers the effect of my and previous administrations policies – lights please.

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