Peter wrote:

> 4. None of the financial and political leaders who let this mess happen under
> their eyes (and often willingly caused it - see the sub-prime mortgage policies
> in the US 20-30 years ago) for years on end takes any blame, 

Not sure this is how you meant it, but it seems that Greenspan has admitted
to not having interpreted correctly the situation. (Of course, he's
something like 84 now and can pretty much say what he wants without it
affecting anything in his life :)

OTOH, when the constantly rising public debts of practically all countries
explode some day (they can't just continue to rise forever, can they?),
people will again be "surprised." FWIW, Reagan (the one who "invented" big
time government borrowing in the USA) is still considered an economic
genius, and Obama can say without public outcry that he wouldn't have
focussed as much on budget balancing as Clinton did...

> We are living "interesting times".

Actually, I think it's only the times that are a-changing... the people
(and their problems) basically are still the same as they were five
thousand years ago.

Gerhard

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