A quick round-up from the Guardian on 25 people who lead us down the road to ruin.
First up, no surprises — Alan Greenspan. His ideological heroine was the dubious Ayn Rand whose book, Atlas Shrugged, was influential on a range of businessmen such as Greenspan and which was condemned when first published over 50 years ago by both left (as embodying the “greed is good” credo) and right (as godless). And no, in this case such controversy does not signal a Good Thing.
Then there are various of the great, the good and the appalling (or all three). Odd to see no Tony Blair when there is a Gordon Brown. TB was surely just as much involved in the underlying social changes that lead to this position as his former ministerial colleague.
Hank is there, as is Dick Fuld, plus the American public, without whom none of this would have been possible.
And my favourite is Angelo Mozilo, formerly head of Countrywide Financial, and known as “The Orange One” allegedly on account of the strangely coloured perma-hue of his skin.
Finally, the piece names a few of the good guys — people who saw it coming and who, in some cases, made a mint out of the downturn, including Buffett, Stephen Eismann and Dr Doom, aka Professor Nouriel Roubini.
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When did Ayn Rand advocate the government’s manipulation of the money supply?
Oh, right, she didn’t, and neither did her economic compatriots- the Austrians (Hayek, Mises, et al)
Greenspan was simply a political pawn used to prop up U.S. consumption.