Greenspan Kept Dissent on Housing Bubble Secret Rather than “Risk” Public Debate from Firedoglake by emptywheel

Former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan and Wife, Journalist Andrea Mitchell, enter the Washington Gridiron Dinner in 2006 (photo: @mjb)

Ideally, you've already seen Ryan Grim's explosive report on how, in 2004, Alan Greenspan argued the Fed should keep worries about a growing housing bubble secret because the chumps buying the houses were too stupid to engage in a debate about whether there was a bubble or not.

As top Federal Reserve officials debated whether there was a housing bubble and what to do about it, then-Chairman Alan Greenspan argued that the dissent should be kept secret so that the Fed wouldn't lose control of the debate to people less well-informed than themselves.

"We run the risk, by laying out the pros and cons of a particular argument, of inducing people to join in on the debate, and in this regard it is possible to lose control of a process that only we fully understand," Greenspan said, according to the transcripts of a March 2004 meeting.

rest at http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/05/03/top-journalists-husband-argues-people-are-too-stupid-for-debate/