You Can't Handle the Truth!

For over a year now everybody who is anybody (or wanting to be somebody) have been tripping over themselves trying to find the villain of the country's current financial problems. The latest suspect is Alan Greenspan as he's been hauled in front of a Congressional committee to explain why he didn't see it coming in his days as the Fed chief.

On April 13, 2010 Yahoo Finance's Tech Ticker ran a story "The Most Ridiculous Excuse Ever: "No One Saw The Crisis Coming" talking about yet again why didn't anyone in authority see the crisis coming and sound the alarm.

Reality Check!

While MasterPo certainly isn't defending Greenspan et al let's be real.

First, remember waaaaay back on December 5, 1996 when Greenspan stated his now infamous "irrational exuberance" description of the stock market?
Remember how the market lurched down for days and he was forced to make a hasty public adjustment to his comments?
Remember how Greenspan was blamed for nearly causing a market crash?!

Well now consider what would have happened if Greenspan and others of similar authority and notoriety had come out publicly with a stern warning about the mortgages, the markets, low interest rates, borrowing, etc etc.

Just imagine the market turmoil and financial shake up such comments would have caused!
And once again he and others would be blamed but now for having caused a problem where one didn't (as yet) exist.

The phrase "Damned if you, damned if you don't" clearly applies here.

Or, to quote actor Jack Nicholson "You can't handle the truth!"