Greenspan Legacy Is Recast Around 2008 Crisis as 1977 Housing Boom Undercuts Easy-Money Blame
Updated
Updated · Forbes · Jun 22
Greenspan Legacy Is Recast Around 2008 Crisis as 1977 Housing Boom Undercuts Easy-Money Blame
3 articles · Updated · Forbes · Jun 22
Summary
A fresh reassessment argues Alan Greenspan was wrongly cast as the architect of the 2008 crisis, saying obituary-era criticism overstates the Fed chair’s power over credit and growth.
A 1977 episode anchors that case: Greenspan found mortgage issuance running six times the prior decade’s norm and home prices tripling even as Fed rates were rising, challenging the idea that low rates alone drove the 2000s bubble.
The article instead blames the George W. Bush era’s weak-dollar policies for pushing investors toward housing and other hard assets, arguing exchange-rate credibility—not Fed rate setting—better explains the boom.
It also rejects the opposite myth that Greenspan 'steered' the economy through shocks from 1987 to 9/11, saying stronger Reagan-Clinton policy made him look brilliant while weaker post-2000 policy made him look culpable.
The broader verdict is that Greenspan was neither the genius of the 1990s nor the villain of 2008, but a policymaker whose reputation rose and fell with forces beyond his direct control.