Greenspam

Former Fed Reserve head-honcho Alan Greenspan has sort of admitted a modicum of cuplability in the current WE'RE ALL DOOMED! Credit Crunch.

A long-time cheerleader for deregulation, Greenspan admitted to a congressional committee yesterday that he had been "partially wrong" in his hands-off approach towards the banking industry and that the credit crunch had left him in a state of shocked disbelief. "I have found a flaw," said Greenspan, referring to his economic philosophy. "I don't know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact."

OK, it is hardly an admission of guilt, more a tacit admission of ignorance and stupidity. But that, at least, is a start. And he is distressed, bless his cotton socks.

Luckily we 're now in the safe hands of Hank Paulson, who...

As the crisis continued to depress global stockmarkets, the US treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, also offered a partial confession, admitting he ought to have anticipated a meltdown in the US mortgage industry widely blamed for triggering the crisis. "I could have seen the sub-prime crisis coming earlier," he told the New York Times. He added: "I'm not saying I would have done anything differently."

Hold on. Even if you'd seen this coming you may not have done anything differently? Remember this guy once negotiated his contract at a the major investment banks that stipulated he would pay no income tax. Now this? Isn't it just a bit like saying "Yeah, I should've spotted that, but hey, I'm alright jack, so fuck the lot of you. By the way, can I have $700billion dollars?"

Back to Greenspan, who...

In prepared remarks before the House of Representatives, Greenspan, 82, who retired in 2006, called the financial crisis a "once-in-a-century credit tsunami" and said it had "turned out to be much broader than anything I could have imagined".

Once-in-a-century? Obviously a calendar century Al, because in the last 100 years we've had the crash of the 80s, the Asian Crisis, the 70s oil shock and, last and far from least, the Great Depression. And what's with the tsunami analogy? What the fuck is a "credit tsunami"?

Not a fabulous grasp of maths, history, economics - or whatever discipline covers tsunamis - from the former head of the Fed Reserve. His job interview must have been reeeaaallll easy.