Godfather

Undoubtedly, the parents of the present financial catastrophe are greedy bankers and speculators.

But there is a godfather. He created the necessary market conditions, or at least allowed them to grow.

This is a photo of that godfather. Alan Greenspan was the highly venerated chairman of the US Federal Reserve and a Messiah and top guru in all things financial. He walked on holy ground. No president dared touch him.

When Greenspan had spoken, everyone else (who knew their place) kept their mouths shut tight. For a time, even I believed him !

Greenspan still occasionally speaks. In recent speeches it was not clear whether he understood the seriousness of the present situation or his responsiblity for at least part of it. Now that most of his disciples are in hell, he still is enjoying an extremely comfortable retirement.

A close second, only because he was more of a theoretician, was the Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman (1912 - 2006), the inspirator of the school of Chicago, and the indisputed pope of free market economy. Every market intervention, including regulation, was anathema to this man. Unfortunately for him, he can no longer behold the indirect fruits of his labor.

I wish I were alive one hunderd years from now, just to see how history will judge these arrogant and half blinded top economists. But that's a figure of speech only : I know the answer. People never learn. A great depression, such as our parents lived through in the thirties, never could happen again - this was a 101 basic dogm in economic teaching. We had learned how to pull the ropes and we had the instruments at our disposal to avoid such a catastrophy.

This is late 2008 and we are almost there again.