Uh-Oh: Former Japanese Industry Minister Admits Fukushima's Beyond Bad

All quotes from Banri Kaieda, Japan's Industry Minister during and after the Fukushima event.  Presented here these two stories from ENews regarding his recent testimony. Japan’s Ex-Industry Minister: Neutron radiation is degenerating reactors — Admits he was playing a role when saying nuclear plants were safe, and Former Top Official at Hearing: Told that all 6 Fukushima reactors would ‘explode’ if workers left plant — Entire eastern Japan might be lost.  Chilling.

[...]

In June, [Banri Kaieda, the industry minister during the early stages of the Fukushima nuclear accident,] declared that nuclear power plants were safe and said he would approve the restarts of nuclear power plants, with the exception of the Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka Prefecture.


But [yesterday May 17, 2012] he told the Diet investigation panel that he did not believe all plants were problem-free, partly because reactors degenerate due to neutron radiation.


Still, he defended his decision to allow operations to resume at nuclear plants, saying he had a “role to play as industry minister.”
[...]
Kaieda said on May 17 that [Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa] Shimizu told him on the phone that TEPCO would evacuate from the Fukushima No. 1 plant to the Fukushima No. 2 plant. [...]
Kaieda asked industry ministry officials what would happen if all TEPCO employees deserted the plant. Kaieda said he was told: “It would be disastrous because not only the No. 1 to No. 4 reactors but also the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors would explode.”


Kaieda then discussed the issue with other Cabinet ministers who were at the prime minister’s office. He said they reached the conclusion: “A (total) withdrawal would lead to a disaster, in which the entire eastern Japan might be lost. We have to ask workers at the plant to hang in there although we feel sorry for them.”
[...]
There.  He admitted he lied, and said TEPCO feels sorry for the workers.  Don't you feel better now?

Woman Drives Into Moose, Has Jodie Foster Type Moment

I found this on Urban Survival, and agree with George Ure on this one:  This feels very "alternate reality."   What moose? Woman can't recall dramatic collision.  She can't remember accident or the drive to Gander, says badly injured mother.  CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador.  Excerpts:

A central Newfoundland woman, who drove about 40 kilometres with her windshield smashed out and her car's roof peeled back like an opened can, says she didn't know she'd hit a moose until she arrived at work in Gander on Monday.



"I can remember pulling into the driveway and my co-workers came out and asked me if I was okay and I said 'Why?' and they said 'Well Michelle you're bleeding and look at your car. I looked at my car and I was devastated," Michelle Higgins told CBC Friday.


"The roof was like a sardine can. I thought, 'this is impossible'."


Cindy Paulson is one of the co-workers who saw Higgins when she arrived at work.


"I said 'My god Michelle. What happened?' And she looked at me and said 'Nothing, what are you talking about?' I said, 'Michelle you were in an accident.' She said 'No, I was not in an accident.' "

Paulson was able to convince Higgins that she needed some medical attention.


"When we went to the hospital, the doctor was asking her questions, just questioning her memory. Like what's your name, your date of birth, where do you live? She knew everything like that. The accident was the only thing gone. Lost," she said. "Whoo. I tell you, I don't know. It's a miracle."


Higgins, of Norris Arm, said she received head and neck injuries during the collision. Her face is badly bruised and two bones in her neck were fractured. Higgins said her family is still finding bits of glass from her windshield around their home.


"I know my head did take a good impact and my forehead has a scuff mark that we are thinking may have been caused by the moose's hoof," she said.


But on Friday Higgins said she still doesn't remember hitting the massive animal after visiting the site where the dead moose was found.
..
"I don't really want to remember hitting the moose but from the time I hit it to the time I arrived in at my destination, I had to drive through Glenwood, and I had to go through Gander, pass the hospital and then make two lefts and a right. The girls said I arrived at work on time. So how did I get there?"



Higgins is appealing to anyone who saw her driving her badly damaged car on the Trans-Canada Highway to get in touch with her.


"Nobody reported seeing this lunatic on the road driving like this. I would like to have that part of my memory back," she said. "I'd like to know if I was driving safely."

The missing memory of Just the incident is a bit too specific to be a brain related reaction.  The article implies no other observed on-going memory issues not event-related.  She seems unaffected, save no recall of the events surrounding the crash.  Is there financial or criminal motive for her to lie?  No mention of alcohol or other substance involvement..  Shock is a strange phenomenon, but I don't think that's quite what this is.  

I'd really like ongoing updates on Michelle Higgins's condition.  If she remains stable physiologically but still can't remember, the memory might not ever return.  If you believe in the Multi-verse, maybe she had some trans-dimensional experience, overloading cognition.  In this case, also, her memory might not ever return.

Question:  How does one prepare for the possibility of objects materializing directly in front of you and your car's path?

Answer:  You can't!

2012!

EXCLUSIVE: Donna Summer Denied Making Antigay Remarks That Hurt Her Career

Me?  Yes, I remember the furor over her remarks, the mainstream media coverage, and the career backlash.  Yes, I do think she said what was attributed to her (In the Advocate interview at the link, she flatly denies that charge).  It really bothered me then(And still bothers some people today-check out the comments), but I'm sure her opinions did evolve when she realized AIDS was indeed killing many people she truly loved.  Getting quoted saying something stupid or regrettable or wrong or often repeated doesn't make one a monster.  Lashing out (Harshly)at your hardcore fanbase once doesn't make you Bad.  But it doesn't make you particularly bright, either..

I can imagine her remarks were tempered with the judgement and enthusiasm of someone raised in the church, who fell so far away into both gay and celebrity cultures, then was newly Born Again.  Maybe she felt like she needed to prove her sincerity.  When the moaning, simulated orgasm of 1975's "Love To Love You, Baby" came out, I heard "She's goin' tuh hell" many times..  (I never heard that song on the radio at anytime during its chart time except on American Top 40.  It got to Number 2 on the Hot 100, by the way..)  When that song came on the jukebox, everyone stopped, listened, then formed radically different opinons about what they just heard.  This was 1975/76, people:  This song was a sexual nuclear bomb.  Not everybody liked it, some people HATED it, but if you loved it, you LOVED it. 

Even at my young age, I loved it.  Conservative Christians, as a matter of course, did not love this song.  So, when Born Again, maybe she immediately swung just a little further right on her personal pendulum than where she ended up landing, and during that time, she said some things aloud she shouldn't have..  Shit like that does happen, right?

And maybe, as she continued to grow spiritually, she rethought.  At least that's how I hope it went down.  Or, maybe she buried that episode so deep, to her, it didn't happen.  Capricorns are very capable of just such denial. Whatever her motivations were at that time ceased when she changed.  As much bullshit as I've said(On a fairly regular basis), I really can't hold two or three sentences said during a 30 year old performance against her, especially considering the fact she never repeated this type of outburst.  I'm willing to give Donna Summer the benefit of growing way past those words. 

Sleep peacefully, Donna.  I'll be playing my favorites of yours; for you.  Thanks for the grooves, lady..

"I Feel Love" may be the best Disco song of all time.

Greece: Before And After

The populist tsunami forms..  If these polls hold true, Greece is about to change history.  Is this Greece's exit from the euro zone?  Is this the beginning of the end for the entire European Union?  Where's Riot Dog?  Zero Hedge.  Excerpts:

In one of the most fascinating psychological shifts, there has been a massive shift in the perspective of the Greek electorate since the election two weeks ago. Almost as if the size of the actual votes for Syriza, the far-left anti-bailout party, gave citizens 'permission' to be angry and vote angry. The latest opinion polls, as per Credit Suisse, show the center-right New Democracy party crashing from 108 seats to only 57 as Tsipras and his Syriza colleagues soar from 52 seats to a hugely dominant 128 seats. Is it any wonder the market is pricing GGBs at record lows and 'expecting' a Greek exit from the Euro as imminent given the rhetoric this party has vociferously discussed. On the bright side, the extreme right Golden Dawn party is seen losing some of its share.

The new election date for Greece is June 17th.  Can the bankers prevent a bank run meltdown before then?  Fun election fact:  More than one half of Greek policemen voted for the Neo-Nazi New Dawn Party.  That ought to be a great conversation starter and laugh riot during the upcoming real riots!

Richard Branson says Spain can solve its economic problems by legalizing marijuana

File Under:  Of course!  Raw Story.  Excerpts:

Sir Richard Branson believes that the ideal way for Spain to get out of its current morass of national debt, savage austerity cuts, and social turmoil would be to legalize and tax marijuana.



The billionaire founder of the Virgin Group suggested at the opening of the world’s largest cannabis museum in Barcelona on Wednesday that this policy “would help get the country back on its feet.”


Branson is a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, a body “which includes five ex-presidents and Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, and which concluded last year that the war on drugs had failed and called for experiments in decriminalisation.”

Other members of the commission include former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

Buncha fuckin' neer-do-wells..  Wait; what?  

Seriously, what's it going to take to have some rational policy regarding marijuana legalization and taxation on an international basis?  Where are the other revenue streams that could turn the world's economies around?  Legal or not, people will continue to use pot.  Why not try a probationary legalization, complete with taxation and safety enforcement?  Try, say, five years.  If chaos rules the day(Which it won't..), re-criminalize it.  If not, naysayers still don't have to smoke it, but the rest of the world reaps the benefits of a huge tax base increase, and the promise of some mighty fine days, full of totally legal fun!  Win-win! 

I Could've Had A V-8, But Chose This Horribly Mutated, Radioactive Tomato Instead..

The worst vegetable mutation  Fukushima Diary.  Check out this bullshit.  This is ONE tomato..

This is from June, 2011.  2011.  Now that's good eatin'!!  No telling what this year's Harvest of Horror will produce..  Seriously, though..  Nothing is wrong:  Keep shopping.

Putting A Conspiracy Theory To Rest

Looks like even the rightards are giving up on the whole "Obama killed Breitbart" insanity..  When Sinclair News is the debunker of ANYTHING wackadoo, you know that narrative has finally been extinguished-but good!  Excerpts:


Sinclair News has been following up and reporting the FACTS as they relate to the March 1, 2012 death of conservative Journalist Andrew Breitbart since his death became public. Since the Los Angeles County Coroners Office issuing its COD (Cause of Death) on April 20, 2012 some Internet organizations have continued to claim Breitbart was murdered and even went so far as to knowingly start a completely false claim that LA County Coroner Forensic Tech Michael Cormier was involved in the March 2, 2012 autopsy of Andrew Breitbart and was murdered the day the Breitbart cause of death was reported April 20, 2012 (this was done by Alex Jones and WND among others) Despite the statements from the Los Angeles County Coroners office that Mr. Cormier had NO involvement in the Andrew Breitbart autopsy WND and Jones continued to claim otherwise until this past week when WND tried to cover itself by trying to claim another ‘news organization’ reported the opposite of what Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter had said. It should be noted that Forensic Tech Cormier’s name is not on a single piece of the Breitbart Autopsy Report.


Lessee, Obama kills Breitbart with a heart attack gun, or Breitbart kills himself by stressing his heart (His already weak heart)with fatass-ery, alcohol, cocaine, and rage?  Heart problems with no self control?  It was only a matter of time, babies..  Poor andy:  An entire career of manipulating sound and fury, ultimately, signifying nothing.

First Day With The New Hands, Hans?

Stupid, klutzy Germans, makin' my taint hurt..  Apocalypse now? German drops Mayan magical skull owned by Himmler... and it could mark the end of the world on 21-12-12  The Daily Mail UK.  Excerpts:

If the world ends on December 21, blame a German butterfingers who dropped a volcanic rock skull once owned by SS overlord Heinrich Himmler in his laboratory this week.



According to legend, the Mayan skull, which was stolen from Tibet by the Nazis and imbued for believers with magical powers to enable mankind to survive an apocalypse, fell and chipped during a photo shoot.


For some, this is a catastrophe that foretells the end of the world, but others advise us to keep calm and carry on.


Apocalypse soon: For some, ancient Mayan calculations indicate the world will end on December 21, 2012


'It was probably put down somewhere a bit wobbly,' an eyewitness told a German newspaper.
 'Suddenly it crashed to the floor. A big piece broke off the chin. It's really tragic.'


Thomas Ritter, an historian who owns the skull, said it was given to him by the family of a former British soldier present at the 1945 arrest of Himmler, who ran the Gestapo, the SS and the extermination programme which murdered six million Jews.


He added that he believed its accident wouldn't 'anger the Gods' and that the world will still be turning on December 22.


The skull is 1,000 years old and one of the legendary Mayan skulls that belonged to the lost, ancient race of Mexico, which were said to be infused with magical powers.


The 3lb skull is made of volcanic rock and, according to Ritter, was seized by SS men sent on an expedition to Tibet between 1937 and 1939 to look for the lost city of Shangri-La.


Ritter said: 'The Nazis were convinced that 13 such skulls existed and that whoever owned them would have control of the world.'


Himmler died on May 23, 1945 using a poison capsule hidden in his mouth to take his life.

88 - Neuschwabenland, the Last German Colony   Fictional figment, overstated importance, the last Nazi bulkhead?
The first sentence of this post is an homage to a very talented teller of stories, my friend Kirk  That anecdote changed my life!  Thank you for that, bub..

Catastrophism proven dominant force in geology once again: Scientists stunned by dramatic change in seafloor in two weeks

File Under:  What we thought we knew; we don't.  The BBC, via The Extinction Protocol.  Excerpts:

May 13, 2012 –TONGA – Researchers studying the Monowai volcano, near Tonga, recorded huge changes in height in just two weeks. Lead author Tony Watts of Oxford University told the BBC that the revelation was “a wake-up call that the sea-floor may be more dynamic than we previously thought. I’ve spent my career studying the seabed and have generally thought it pretty stable so it’s stunning to see so much change in such a short space of time.” As many as 32,000 underwater mountains have been identified around the world and the majority are believed to be volcanic in origin. Several thousand of these may be active but a combination of ocean depth and remoteness means that very few have been studied. The team then left the area to carry on with planned research elsewhere but three days later were warned that seismic detectors on the Cook Islands had detected violent activity around the volcano over a five-day period. “If we had been over the volcano during the eruption, rocks could have hit the hull of the ship – that could have been potentially dangerous.” Later the ship returned to the scene and the scientists were surprised to see how much the volcano had changed. In the space of a fortnight, one part of the volcano’s summit had collapsed by as much as 18.8m while new lava flows had raised another area by 79.1m. Most striking was the creation of an entirely new volcanic cone.

Paper Ballot Op-Scan Systems in FL, WI, NY, OH Confirmed to Overheat, Mistally 70% of Votes

Until those conducting all elections can guarantee at least a 95 percent accuracy rate with touch screen or opti-scan(Or further in the future, the Internet..), all elections should be conducted with paper ballots, and MUST BE counted by hand.  Period.  The Brad Blog.  Excerpts:

New paper ballot optical-scan computer tabulator systems used to tally millions of votes in New York --- as well as "swing states" such as Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin --- do not tally votes correctly. That stunning admission comes courtesy of a new report released by the private company which manufactures, sells, services and programs the systems which are now believed to have mistallied tens of thousands of ballots in New York in 2010.



The votes of more than ten million voters could be affected by a newly revealed failure in the voting systems set for use in those four states in this year's Presidential election, and in more than 50 different jurisdictions in Wisconsin during next month's historic recall elections.


Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S), the largest e-voting machine company in the U.S. and the maker of the paper ballot op-scan tally systems in question, have confirmed that their systems may overheat when used over several hours (for example, during an election!), and that they then may mis-tally and/or incorrectly discard anywhere from 30% to 70% of votes scanned by the machines.


The only way to know that a hand-marked paper ballot had been mistallied by the system would be to examine the ballots by hand to assure that the computer had read and recorded the voters' selections correctly.  (So why not just go ahead and do it right the first time?)

Really?  Machines designed for elections and elections only can actually overheat during that 12 to 14 hour period?  Thank God they don't have to be used two days in a row and they've got a two year fucking break between gigs!  Can you imagine the chaos raining down on society if Slurpee machines and ATM's performed accordingly?  Not to mention the whole Anybody-can-hack-this-system-in-under-five-minutes, thing.
Anybody, including monkeys, theoretically..

Is it really a mistake when the companies making the mistake keep profiting from that easily correctable mistake?  (Thanks to Bart Cop for the thought articulation..)

Fuku Unit #2 100% liquification of uranium core — “We’ve never seen this before..."

Nice..  Uncharted territory.  Unchecked Nuclear Power, will you ever stop being so much fun?  ENews.  Excerpts:

*UPDATED* ORIGINAL PRESENTATION HERE: Professor Shocked: "The core completely liquefied -- There's nothing left -- There's no hook -- There's no remaining collapsed core" (VIDEO)

Really short post..  Read comments for further hilariousness..  Here's my favorite!

..think it means it's no longer in the corium 'blob' state but capable of traveling into the earth's mantle in a stream-like state; which is much worse than any previous worst case scenario. There will be no remediation possible; resulting in radiological contamination of underground water-ways (interacting ocean and fresh-water aquifers) within this entire region, for hundreds-of-thousands of years.



Given the amount of energy needed to maintain a liquefied condition without significant surface cooling is unusual. Classical thermodynamics has left the building…

I guess things will be super exciting by the time MSM starts reporting this again..

This Week In Global Economic Chaos..

If Greece Exits, Here Is What Happens  Zero Hedge thinks maybe/grain of salt.  More importantly, will Greece follow Iceland or Germany?  Greek skata hits fan in three.. Two..


An unprecedented financial crisis is lurking on the horizon as Market Oracle warns of Greece’s exit from the Eurozone  The Extinction Protocol.  Excerpts:



What may be lost in the noise that is the mainstream press is the fact that Greece has not been in a recession or even a depression, Greece has been in a state of slow motion economic collapse on the scale of past economic collapses such as that of Argentina but so far without the ability to default, devalue and inflate.
And:
Greek politicians traded insults and accusations Sunday following an effort by President Karolos Papoulias to broker a coalition government, increasing the possibility of new elections in the debt-stricken country. Papoulias called together the leaders of the three biggest parties on Sunday, a week after indecisive elections and three failed attempts to form a government. A default by Greece could drag down other troubled governments such as Spain and Portugal. Europe is keeping a nervous eye on Greece, fearing that the political chaos there could lead to defaults on debt that could threaten the future of the euro. Greek failure — or refusal — to make debt payments could hurt banks across Europe. The eurozone economy is fragile, and any financial shock could plunge the region into a deep recession, a development that would ripple across the globe. A default by Greece also could drag down other troubled governments such as Spain and Portugal. 

Merkel's CDU Trounced In Most Populous State Elections Over Austerity; Pirates Strong  Also from Zero Hedge.  Excerpts:

Another weekend, another stunner in local European elections, this time as Merkel's CDU gets a record low vote in the state elections of Germany's most populous state North Rhein-Westphalia. According to a preliminary projections by ARD, the breakdown is as follows:
•SPD:39%


•CDU: 26%


•Greens:12%


•Pirates: 7.5%


•FDP: 8.5%


•Left:2.5%
And:

Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives suffered a crushing defeat on Sunday in an election in Germany's most populous state, exit polls showed, a result which could embolden the left opposition to step up attacks on her European austerity policies.



Merkel remains popular at home for her steady handling of the euro zone debt crisis, but the sheer scale of her party's defeat represents a heavy blow that could tilt the German political landscape and leave her more vulnerable to domestic critics.


According to an exit poll for public broadcaster ARD, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) won 39 percent of the vote and will have enough to form a stable majority with the Greens, who scored 12 percent.


The two left-leaning parties had run a fragile minority government for the past two years under popular SPD leader Hannelore Kraft, whose decisive victory on Sunday could propel her to national prominence.


Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) saw their support plunge to just 26 percent, down from nearly 35 percent in 2010, and the worst result in the state since World War Two.

Merkel's attention will now be divided between the financial crisis and domestic concerns, like keeping her job.  I think Germany has begun to de-stabilize.  Albeit a long way away, this vote was a pretty visible step in that direction..

Three JPMorgan executives expected to resign over $2 billion loss  This is only the beginning.  Of everything..  Raw Story.  Excerpts:

Three top executives at JPMorgan are expected to resign this week in the wake of a $2 billion trading loss. 



The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the three include Ina R. Drew, the head of the risk-management division responsible for the loss, along with the top executive and a managing director at the London branch that placed the trades under her direction.

According to several JPMorgan executives, Drew had offered her resignation several times since the extent of the losses became known in late April, but CEO Jamie Dimon had previously refused to accept it.

The situation changed however, when Dimon revealed the loss on Thursday and it led to a 10% drop in the firm’s stock price the next day. “We made a terrible, egregious mistake,” Dimon has since admitted. ‘There’s almost no excuse for it.”

The Jaime Dimon Countdown-To-Quitting clock begins!

Australia the most ‘obvious’ bubble in 30 years, says economist  Financial Post.  Excerpts:

As far as bubbles go, they don’t get more obvious than Australia, according to one economist and noted bear.



Albert Edwards, economist with Société Générale, put out a note on Thursday morning whose title says it all: “The biggest bubble in recent history is heading for the mother of all hard landings.”


Mr. Edwards cites Australia’s extreme reliance on the Chinese economy as the foundation for the current bubble. After all, Australia, a global heavyweight in mining, is dependent on the global commodity boom that China has largely helped fuel over the last decade.


“All we have in Australia, at its simplest, is a credit bubble built upon a commodity boom dependent for its sustenance on an even greater credit bubble in China,” he said.
And:
Mr. Edwards adds that the current bubble has been precipitated by the fact that Australia has not experienced a recession for more than 20 years — making investors complacent as a result.



“The absence of any recession since 1991 has led Australians to have an excessive appetite for debt in the belief the future will reflect the past,” he said.

And complacency, of course, is a big factor in bubble creation. That has led Mr. Edwards to conclude the following about Australia:


“Of all the bubbles I have seen over the last 30 years in this industry, this one is even more obvious than the rather prominent nose on my increasingly haggard face,” he said.

Sun UFO - Jupiter Size Doughnut-shape Spaceship Photographed BY NASA - STEREO

Interesting that there've been no updates since May 2nd..  UFO Blogger.  Excerpts, with pictures! 

..on May 2, 2012 NASA STEREO photographed down below image; in which you can see a gigantic Jupiter size doughnut-shape spaceship near sun.



STEREO data suggest UFO was there from May 2, 2012 [Time Stamp - 19:15:40] to May 3, 2012 [Time Stamp - 23:55:40]. UFO is still there but from may 4 onwards NASA distorted the UFO from STEREO images.  (Images at link.)

These images are very similar to..

STS-75 1996 Tether UFO Incident:



NASA's STS 75 Columbia Space Shuttle Tether Science Mission TSS-1R launched on February 22, 1996 from Kennedy Space Center Florida. The orbital altitude was 160 nautical miles with a mission duration of 15 days, 17 hours, 41 minutes, 25 seconds and a distance of 6.5 million miles traveled.

The payload deployed was an Italian built Tether designed to gather data on voltage generated across the Tether while in the ionosphere. During the operation the Tether snapped from the Shuttle on day three just short of full deployment of it's 12.8 mile length Tether causing it to speed away from the orbiter. The Tether moving through the ionosphere became electrically charged with as much as 3,500 volts or 480 milliamps drawing the attention of UFO's orbiting the Earth.


Very large UFO passing by and then behind the 12-mile long tether on filmed after the tether break on STS-75, Februay 25, 1996. The video camera was being operated by astronaut Claude Nicolier Photo of the STS-75 mission showing a UFO and the tether.


Note that the tether is between 77-100 nautical miles away from the shuttle Columbia. The tether is 12 miles long. The UFOs all pass "behind" the tether which allows us to view and measure their minimum sizes. Some are 2-3 miles minimum diameter.

Mmm..  Flying, Jupiter-sized donut with jet propulsion..   Arrrrrrrghhh..

Guest Post: Alan Greenspan Asked For Advice, Do People Ever Learn?

BAM.  Thanks, Alan!  James Miller via Zero Hedge drops the hammer.  Excerpts:

Unbelievable.



That is the only way to express this author’s utter bewilderment that former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan is still given an outlet to speak his mind. Actually, I am surprised Mr. Greenspan has the audacity to show his face, let alone speak, in public after the economic destruction he is responsible for.
It was because of Greenspan, of course, that the world economy is still muddling its way along with painfully high unemployment. His decision to prop up the stock market with money printing under any and every threat of a downtick in growth, also known as the Greenspan Put, created an environment of easy credit, reckless spending, and along with the federal government’s initiatives to encourage home ownership, the foundation from which a housing bubble could emerge.


It was moral hazard bolstering on a massive scale. Wall Street quickly learned (and the lesson sadly continues today) that the Federal Reserve stands ready to inflate should the Dow begin to plummet by any significant amount. Following his departure from the chairmanship and bursting of the housing bubble, Greenspan quickly took to the press and denied any responsibility for financial crisis which was a result in due part to the crash in home prices. In his infamous 2009 Wall Street Journal editorial, he had the nerve to blame availability of credit which financed the run-up in home prices to a “savings glut” in Asia. He writes.

[T]he presumptive cause of the world-wide decline in long-term rates was the tectonic shift in the early 1990s by much of the developing world from heavy emphasis on central planning to increasingly dynamic, export-led market competition. The result was a surge in growth in China and a large number of other emerging market economies that led to an excess of global intended savings relative to intended capital investment. That ex ante excess of savings propelled global long-term interest rates progressively lower between early 2000 and 2005.

Sounds convincing right?

Much of the aura of greatness attributed to Greenspan throughout his term as chairman was due in part to the purposefully overly-technical language he used when talking to reporters. Here he utilized the same technique, albeit in a simpler manner, to obscure the Fed’s role in the housing bubble. His explanation falls on its face though when looking at key historical data and by asking the right questions.
..
And as economist George Reisman brilliantly shows, the “savings glut” argument doesn’t stand when taking into account the following questions and observations:

First, if saving had been responsible, rather than credit expansion and the increase in the quantity of money, there would have been a corresponding decline in consumer spending in the countries allegedly doing the saving. The fact is that there was no such decline.

Second, saving implies a growing supply of capital goods, more production, and lower prices, including lower prices of capital goods and even of land. These are results that are incompatible with the widespread increases in prices typically found in a bubble.


Third, if somehow saving had been responsible for the housing bubble, the spending it financed would not suddenly have stopped. Such stoppage is a consequence of the end of credit expansion and the revelation of a lack of capital.


Fourth, if large-scale saving rather than credit expansion had been present, banks and other firms would have possessed more capital, not less. They would not be in their present predicament of having inadequate capital to carry on their normal operations. This situation of insufficient capital is the result of malinvestment and over consumption, which are the consequences of credit expansion, not saving.


Fifth, in the absence of increases in the quantity of money and overall volume of spending in the economic system, saving also implies an immediate tendency toward a fall in the economy wide average rate of profit. This is another result that is incompatible with what is observed in a bubble or boom of any kind, which is surging profits so long as “the good times” last.

It should be perfectly clear at this point that Greenspan holds the majority of the blame for the housing bubble. And yet many financial media outlets still see the former central banker as a type of guru on global economic affairs.

That reverence seems to be fading quickly.  By this fall, people should (finally!)have a very different opinion of Alan Greenspan, all the choices he's made, and where those choices have brought all of us. Right now, it's still the economists and information junkies and people his policies destroyed.  More to arrive shortly, to be sure..