The Nostalgia of Betrayal--Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve and me
Moss David Posner M.D.
February 01, 2006
In a recent article that appeared on the advent of Alan Greenspan's departure from the Federal Reserve, the author waxed nostalgic, depicting all of the accomplishments and awards that pertained to the outgoing chairman.
I felt a wave of nostalgia too--the nostalgia of betrayal. Here is the body of my letter to the editor:
Sir:
You surely know how to peg Alan Greenspan. But how did he get to where he was the day of his departure, from whence he sprung from the Arms of Ayn Rand?
I am being metaphoric, of course.....Greenspan was the consummate free market expositor. Although he was not unlike Sir Francis Bacon, whose mother described his "folded enigmatic writing," still, he was consistent in showing that it was only a truly free market that could allow economic wealth to be created and maintained. He was brilliant. We all--who took his course--knew he would "go places." So what happened?
He went places--or, perhaps more accurately, he was made an offer he couldn't refuse. The enemy knew his power better than we did.
That was the first experience I have had with the necrotic nature of our government. It was chilling, not unlike my recall of Cardinal Minszenty, a political iconoclast (as Greenspan had originally been an economic one) who ultimately "confessed" to his crimes. There was Alan Greenspan, our prior mentor, confessing his perfidy by using the same tortuous logic and equivocal speech which he had taught us to disdain, and speaking from his new pulpit, that of Chairman of The Federal Reserve Bank, that very institution which he had demonstrated clearly to us as being a fraud.
All of my adult life, from time to time, I have day-dreamed of being in a vast audience. Greenspan would have completed a lecture to us, and he would be asking for questions or comments. Then, similar to Alexander Portnoy, I would stand and point an accusatory finger, and say,
"You sold out!"
I felt a wave of nostalgia too--the nostalgia of betrayal. Here is the body of my letter to the editor:
Sir:
You surely know how to peg Alan Greenspan. But how did he get to where he was the day of his departure, from whence he sprung from the Arms of Ayn Rand?
I am being metaphoric, of course.....Greenspan was the consummate free market expositor. Although he was not unlike Sir Francis Bacon, whose mother described his "folded enigmatic writing," still, he was consistent in showing that it was only a truly free market that could allow economic wealth to be created and maintained. He was brilliant. We all--who took his course--knew he would "go places." So what happened?
He went places--or, perhaps more accurately, he was made an offer he couldn't refuse. The enemy knew his power better than we did.
That was the first experience I have had with the necrotic nature of our government. It was chilling, not unlike my recall of Cardinal Minszenty, a political iconoclast (as Greenspan had originally been an economic one) who ultimately "confessed" to his crimes. There was Alan Greenspan, our prior mentor, confessing his perfidy by using the same tortuous logic and equivocal speech which he had taught us to disdain, and speaking from his new pulpit, that of Chairman of The Federal Reserve Bank, that very institution which he had demonstrated clearly to us as being a fraud.
All of my adult life, from time to time, I have day-dreamed of being in a vast audience. Greenspan would have completed a lecture to us, and he would be asking for questions or comments. Then, similar to Alexander Portnoy, I would stand and point an accusatory finger, and say,
"You sold out!"
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