let's talk about alan greenspan. >> also on the list, alan greenspan. >> i think alan greenspan's gotten rap because he's been criticized for doing exactly what ben bernanke's doing, which is making money as cheap as humanly possible. >> yeah. and his influence is partially negative too because of what has happened with the collapse of the american economy, the near collapse of the american economy, the collapse to many people, and his hand in it. and a lot of people think yeah, sure, he's influential, but alan, you should have paid more attention to what you were doing there for a while. >> willie, is that fair? >> his quote about irrational exuberance will ring true and perhaps symbolize the last decade on wall street. >> tell people about that. >> he talked about -- coming into this last decade, into the turn of the century, he said there was irrational exuberance on wall street, perhaps the beginning of the inflation of a bubble. he was of course correct about that. now many say he had a role in inflating the bubble. but he gave us at least the line that will perhaps stick to this de

our you tube channel for a web exclusive because we did probe more into that also still ahead alan greenspan talked to bloomberg today about the fiscal cliff what else but hey on long term deficits maybe we agree with them find out what he said in a loose change but first the closing market numbers. are the worst we're going through. why don't you give a. radio guy. what. did you never seen anything like until. welcome back we are speaking with kevin phillips are when i spoke to him earlier and now though he was a republican political strategist he now is very critical of both parties and one reason progressives have been a big fan is because he's been hugely critical of financial deregulation over the years i had to ask him about it take a listen. let's go through first some of the history of deregulation and money let's play a couple of clips. i have directed the secretary of the treasury to be necessary to defend the dollar against the speculators i have directed secretary connally to suspend temporarily the combat ability of the dollar in the world or other was. the true problems. shorta

you know alan greenspan has gotten off the hook like there's one person that's walked away you know when the financial crisis happened like he got a little bit of flack but that's it you know he hasn't got and still of there are a lot of people out there that you know you could have you didn't know what industry should be or whether they were too hard too low i'm just i think there's one guy that's gotten away with more like bush did a lot with a lot i know i think that this i think i mean i think it's unfortunate that the fiscal cliff has become such a din of coverage because i think major points are lost and it's interesting one that i want to highlight that is worth noting so steve kean our guest our frequent guest was actually on the hill yesterday for a congressional briefing with members of congress who brought him in to do that and he was talking about how based on historical precedent what you could see with the fiscal cliff in terms of cuts dimitry to the public sector are it's not so much the impact of those public sector cuts but the impact on the private sector that may begin

more into that also still ahead alan greenspan talked to bloomberg today about the fiscal cliff what else but they are long term deficits maybe we agree with them find out what he said in loose change but first the closing market numbers. for the. science technology innovation hall believes developments from around russia we've got the future covered. the gold fever. turns out as it's good to see late. my father but also a month brotherhood involved in the mines and since i started working in the mine i stayed here it. says multinationals. is a cash cow to be milked dry and is but i think that in this country gold medal logie has an environmental cost which is an acceptable local business was labeled illegal and controlled by criminals you know in order to protect our lives our families and to work in peace. news. we are forced to pay protection to illegal groups prices colombia going to pay. for the for the modest effect on r.t. . boy. welcome back we are speaking with kevin phillips are we i spoke to him earlier and now though he was a republican political strategist he now is very

our you tube channel for a web exclusive because we did probe more into that also still ahead alan greenspan talked to bloomberg today about the fiscal cliff what else but a long term deficits maybe we agree with them find out what he said in a loose change but first the closing market numbers. the issue is that so much in a moment here is an emmy winning or losing streak even a lot of people are hearing and the rise of the civilizations for over a century there are big predictions of western decline given the global financial crisis that started in two thousand and. two we speak your language was anybody will or not a day in. the news programs and documentaries and spanish more matters to you. there's a little too much of angles stories. here. that try to alter the spanish find out more visit. more news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are old today . british. market. what's really happening to the global economy. there are no holds the global financial headlines kaiser report. news a se

our you tube channel for a web exclusive because we did probe more into that also still ahead alan greenspan talked to bloomberg today about the fiscal cliff what else but they are long term deficits maybe we agree with them find out what he said in loose change but first the closing market numbers. the gold fever. times thousands into slaves. my little son brother. and since i started working at the moment i stayed he. says multinationals. trying to be milked dry at least i think that in this country gold medal as an environmental cost which is unacceptable local business has made it illegal and controlled by criminals in order to protect our lives our families and to work in peace ok let me move. we are forced to pay protection to illegal groups prices colombia going to pay. the bill the modest effect on our t.v. . we're trying to. move. from science to. welcome back we are speaking with kevin phillips are we i spoke to him earlier and now though he was a republican political strategist he now is very critical of both parties and one reason progressives have been a big fan is because he's

the vice chairman alan blinder talked back to alan greenspan, something very few people did.will be talking to us coming next. . . test test [ male announcer ] where do you turn for legal matters? maybe you want to incorporate a business. orrotect your family with a will or living trust. and you'd like the help f an attorney. at legalzoom a legal plan attorney is available in most states with every personalized document to answer questions. get started at legalzoom.com today. and now you're protected. david: time for a quick speed read of some of the day's other headlines. five stories in just a minute. berkshire hathaway announcing it will repurchase $1.2 billion worth of class-a shares from the estate of a long-time shareholder. pending news briefly halted trading in berkshire shares after the market opened but were up. >>> honda recalling 3780,000 minivans and suv worldwide because they can roll away after drivers remove the keys from the ignition. pilot suv and axe cue a mdx models. >>> par shasetting a new sales record, porsche. already eking out its previous record of 1

we'll talk to him. >> also ahead, former fed chairman alan greenspan is back.believes a recession from going over the cliff would be a cheap price to pay to fix our policies. he'll explain why in an exclusive interview with maria coming later on "closing bell." [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. monarch of marketing analysis. with the ability to improve roi through seo all by cob. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. i'm going b-i-g. [ male announcer ] good choice business pro. good choice. go national. go like a pro. ♪ [ male announcer ] they are a glowing example of what it means to be the best. and at this special time of year, they shine even brighter. come to the winter event and get the mercedes-benz you've always wished for, now for an exceptional price. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho, ho! [ male announcer ] lease a 2013 glk350 for $399 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. at your local why they have a raise your r

as brilliant a man as alan greenspan was, he was unable to grasp the reality of our historical moment. and it was in part to deutsch that failure, the systematic errors to the housing markets. and the policy was a change in the financial markets in growth elsewhere in the world. well in the next 20 to 30 years, 3 million people were joining the global economy. it's going to be a transformation ten times what we have seen from the china exchange which is ten times what would happen in japan. now if 3 billion people are suddenly given cognitive freedom, suddenly not thinking just a moment to moment and day to day in the subsistence existence but the creators, the collaborators, the new contributors they are human beings that are not just consumers, they are producers, and that's what this is about. it's all the possibilities that are created when that happens. and i'm certainly not the only person telling that story. >> welcome a professor, who was one of the entrepreneur is that you have discussed in the coming prosperity? >> talking about these global trends, and there's a kind of sil

brian schactman, fiscal cliff talk. >> and form er fed chair alan greenspan is here and dow component dupont, is it holding back on investing and hiring because of the fiscal cliff? we'll speak to the boss ellen bowman giving me her cliff notes so stick around. ericans believee in charge of their own future. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪ >>> welcome back. breaking news. let's get to jackie d'angelis on dupont. >> announcing a share buyback program and the company updating its guidance for 202012 on the previous guidance, the high end of the range of $3.25 to $3.30 in the earnings per share. the company also announced its outlooks in earnings to growth and low to mid-single digits. growth in the low single digits. back over to you. >> what a move in that

but alan greenspan never did what this fed chairman is doing. aken greenspan's belief that cheap money will help americans through tough times to an absurd new level. >> well, he's certainly taken it to a new level. we can discuss whether it's absurd or not. alan greenspan never had to face 8% unemployment and 2% economic growth for such a long period of time. and no sign of inflation. >> but if what alan greenspan did was so disastrous, as we heard in 2009, why is it that the subsequent fed chairman does more of the same and he's getting praised in financial circles? >> first of all, alan greenspan provided cheap money on other occasions, and he's gotten praise for it. after the 1987 stock market crash, for example, he put liquidity in the system and kept the economy moving. i think it's a question what are the facts and circumstances? and right now you have an economy with very little inflation and high unemployment. and i believe the fed's job to do what it can to make it grow. the criticism of alan greenspan over monetary policy -- i don't wa

alan greenspan did try to create the impression that the market and the economy was one and the same.t was a huge mistake the financialization of our economy. that's what led to the cataclysm in 2008. perhaps more important, the point you made, you're right there are a lot of people who are trying to create the fear, the cassandras that i referred to the top of the show who are behind that argument who say now you must do what we want. they want corporate tax cut. am i right? they're sliding something in there that is not directly related to the issue that we're supposed to be directing. >> everyone is doing that. doing the negotiation with the union or any other negotiation you start off with what speaker boehner is calling your la la land proposal. you start off with what you want, and then you work from there. both sides have staked out their dream position, and that's not where we're going to wind up, but that's where you starter and it's kabuki theater, as you said. >> eliot: the components that may not be a cliff or a slope the see questions trace that kicks in, that will have a

the core of my idea is that it is not just a fiscal cliff, we have had -- ever since alan greenspan came to run the federal reserve, we have had this artificial stimulation masking the problems, stabilizing markets. it is very harmful. a forest in which you stifle every fire, in the long run, you'll have flammable material accumulating. tavis: we go over the cliff and in the best of worlds, what happens? >> we will be forced to find a solution. people find a solution rather than politicians bickering. they do not have skin in the game. they're not representing us, they represent their own interests. take things to their conclusion, ok? tavis: if in the process, the american people get hurt, then what? >> the point is not -- the american people will eventually get hurt by the accumulating deficit. we have too much deficit. we have to find a solution. we are forced to find a workable solution. they do not seem to have the incentive. they patched things up and come back and another sustainable solution. the more general problem is that any system that is deprived of its volatility, the syst

live from the white house where i'll be joined by alan greenspan to talk about these issues. >> greenspan coming here? >> coming to the white house which is where we'll be. >> shame he's not coming here. >>> we want to hear your ideas. tweet us with what you would cut. you heard some of our conversation and dialogue here all day. what would you do? what would you cut out to help avert the fiscal cliff? use the #cut this with your ideas "street signs" or at mandy cnbc. speaking of @mandycnbc, inglewood cliffs, i'm at our nation's capital. good to see you. >> good to see you and everybody. thanks for those that already tweeted in answers. look at this, we found someone really rising above. we say we rise above, others rise above but this is really rising above. her name is nancy. she is wearing as you can see there in her ears a rise above pin. hats off to her, maybe we can take a page out of nancy's book. in the meantime, this is what we've got coming up for you. a really big show on top. hopium in full swing. "street signs" things it can be done, tell you how to of moo your money. signs p

in the particular timing on that letter was such that it was the first time alan greenspan had publicly criticized fannie and freddie. i wrote a letter commending him on that and outlining my concerns, most of which were economically based and asking if he would at least take a closer look at what was going on. i continued to write letters like that over a period of years. all the way up to september of 2008. one of those letters was -- a second one that was included was a letter i wrote to the hud secretary in the summer of 2005. we had just completed a study of the non prime market and the conclusion of the study was that almost 50% of the loans that were being originated were non prime loans. these were loans that were low documentation with high ltvs with no income or asset verification and was predicate on draft that i wrote to the hud secretary and asked if he would please discontinue championing and cheerleading home ownership because i thought we were very close to the edge. we were within a year or so as indicated in the letter. of a collapse in the mortgage market. >> your wit

futures modernization act they made during his trading illegal and all the other deregulatory like alan greenspan saying banks go from a twelve to one ratio to twenty thirty fifty one and i you know of that regulation they had again banking specifically outside of the wheel dimensions of the cold war which was to do it spending has only increased so we called or didn't go down no more defense spending and our yeah i was that was your link to the proliferation of weapons of mass might as well destruction which we have gone through any of those things if we still had that nice mr brush and if there are you know threatening also a crucial threatening to bury us we wouldn't we would have had to have had a prompt capitalist system that not only had to be more productive than our rival but had to demonstrate itself to be really cold war no one wins a war no state wins the cold war people profit from it on i the saw eat i say whoever's got the best t.v. shows there the letter. going around that you created the why we didn't say ok i was referring to the global news organizations that bring the real news

capitalism though being driven out by bad capitalism oh we'll break it down and word of the day plus alan greenspan says a painless solution to the u.s. debt is a fantasy finally something we can agree on more in loose change let's get to today's capital account. our guest kevin phillips made a name for himself in the late one nine hundred sixty s. as a g.o.p. operative who coined the phrase and wrote the book the emerging republican majority predicting the rise of the republican party by securing the south for a generation fast forward though and now he's writing about revolution in particular seven hundred seventy five which he says was a good year for it that was of course when the american revolution was going on and when it comes to this war he gets into economic factors that may not have gone down as saliently in mainstream history as taxation without representation but were major roles nonetheless among them was the inability of colonists to manage their own monetary affairs because of british policies also overindebtedness that was in part the result and the brits control of trade which req

normal budgeting process and so just because the government has the capacity to spend dollars as alan greenspan said in an unlimited fashion that there are no constraints on its ability to create the currency it doesn't follow that therefore the government should go out and spend willy nilly on any old project it feels like spending on passing out dollars left and right that hasn't followed it's about recognizing that the government has the ability to span recognizing that only the issuer of the currency can spend in a counter cyclical way and that is when the economy turns down and the rest of us retrench the government because it is the issuer of a currency can step up and spend counter-cyclical and that helps to stabilize economic activity and so it has a very important role to play as the currency assure and one that the rest of us simply can't play so who decides how much the government should spend or what should constrain government spending in a situation where you think it should be spending. well i mean obviously that's a that's a rule for lawmakers that's what legislators do they put

play it impacting the price and getting the price where it was alan greenspan testified to congress in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight central banks stand ready to lead in increasing quantities should the price rise gold leasing is not what central banks sometimes pretend it is a way for them to make a little money on what they call a debt asset it is a mechanism of market control it's a mechanism of defeating a potentially competitive currency it's a mechanism of suppressing interest rates and some mechanism of supporting government bond prices that is historic record larry summers who went from harvard to become treasury secretary the united states wrote the paper about this. what do we know as far as to what extent i know we don't know from central banks accounting how much are you saying what not that they have done or are doing but there is another i.m.f. document from ninety nine that you also your researchers found that does talk about it right well this is interesting because this is how i got this started back in one thousand nine hundred nine when this report was writt

a destabilizing factor i don't pick advocate of free banking but you know what i'm not alone alan greenspan wrote a wonderful essay called golden economic freedom in which he advocated free banking and banking without without central banks so i think we should have this conversation how would it work though without that overseeing body well you know that's an interesting question because in more or less any area of economic life we take for granted that there isn't a central planning orthorexic we don't have a track to planning or for it's your bread planning or thorazine in the u.k. or indeed in the united states we just know that there always be tractors and there always be bread in fact it always be a rich variety of bread of different kinds of different price points but when it comes to money and banking the commodity where money is the commodity on one half of every commercial transaction we take for granted the existence of committees of wise men planning it's price and quantity so some sometimes i think it's like the emperor's new clothes what's wrong in the world is the system of ba

. >> do you agree with alan greenspan, that we ought to just eliminate the debt ceiling?> oh, absolutely. >> you do? will you propose that? >> well, you know, this is something that only congress can solve. congress put it on itself. we've had 100 years of experience with it. and i think only once, last summer, did people decide to use it to threaten default on the american credit for the first time in history as a tool for political advantage and that's not a tenable strategy. >> is now the time to eliminate it? >> it would have been time a long time ago to eliminate it, the sooner the better. >> i don't think the debt ceiling has a place in all of this. i think that we continue the mcconnell rule, which says the president sends it over. if two-thirds of the congress objects, than that is overturned. >> okay. so the mcconnell rule isn't exactly the super awesome trillion-dollar coin idea that i kind of love, but it's not half bad. the president has the power to raise the debt ceiling in order to pay for the things that congress has already agreed to pay for, and if congr

like alan greenspan, former federal reserve claireman. >> i have more fundamental question.have a debt limit in the first place? we appropriate funds. we have tax law. and one reasonably adept at arithmetic can calculate what the debt change is going to be. the congress and the president have signed legislation predetermining what that number is. why do we need suspenders and belts is something i've never understood. >> now that we got them, the question is -- >> now that you've got them, the question essentially is, there is a major problem in cutting spending. and anything that works in my regard is probably helpful. the difficulty that i have is you cannot have a position which stipulates that i will never allow the united states to default. but on the other hand, i will not alw

when republicans came in, cut spending, killed hilary care and alan greenspan had a sensible monetary policy, the economy started to recover and then clinton got the religion, he cut capital gains. >> steve is giving your man all these kudos and you're not taking them. >> two things first, larry, didn't president reagan raise the capital gains tax rate? >> in a tax reform plan he did. >> exactly. that's my point. was that class warfare when he did that? was that class warfare when he did that. >> revenues went down. >> the question, though, was that class warfare? i don't think you would call that class warfare. it's funny times have changed. >> we cut the top freight 50 to 28%. >> and george h.w. bush brought it back up again because he lost so much revenue. >> that's the great part about history you read what you want to read. thank you gentlemen very much. up next on kudlow, president obama issues a war ultimatum to syria. if they dare use chemical weapons and my question where did syria get those wmds. they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through to

sort of a string of comments from lawmakers, from former fed chairman alan greenspan and many in between, talking about what exactly needs to be done, guys, and we know there are big numbers out there in terms of the deficits that we face. tax increase, the president's talked about which seems to take up about 95% of our national dialogue, and media dialogue, just a couple of percent of our deficit problem. sooner or later the lawmakers are going to have to get serious, hammer out big numbers. going to leave you with the biggest number of all, which is more than $60 trillion, those are structural deficits that medicare and social security are facing over the next 30 some years. the fiscal cliff, as big of a story as it is, may simply be a launching point to bigger discussions in our lifetime. i just have that feeling, guys. >> yeah, i think you're right, brian. thank you for that. good stuff all day long, we should note. and this is certain little scary stuff that we're facing, especially when you heard a congress person say we should jump off that cliff together. but the markets are say

, and we get a little historical perspective on that, but as many things that i disagree with alan greenspan on, i thought he was at least more forthright into what he was doing, and even going after the government per se a bit when there were tax issues, all av d avoided by the current chairman ben bernanke, and even though he avoids the conversation, he doesn't avoid giving congress the biggest fire hose in the world filled with free water. >> i love those kind of fire hoses on every corner, please. >> what's that, david? >> bernanke is the most aggressive fed governor we will ever know in the last 40 or 50 years with the monetary stimulation that began in november 2008. >> well her, needed to be? >> and that's likely to still be the only game in town in the face of just fiscal irresponsibility. >> in light of a digs functional congress and no fiscal direction coming from washington in terms of the capitol or the white house, you needed a more aggressive fed chairman, didn't you, david? >> absolutely, you do, and he's the best student of history for this type of situation. i worry two or t

. >>> this day in history -- december 5th, 1996, federal reserve chairman alan greenspan speaks to then enterprise institute. >> but how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions as they have in japan over the past decade. >> that comment alone sends world markets into a tailspin. tokyo down 3% immediately. hong kong down 3%. frankfurt and london down 4%. and new york down 2%. >> no offense to other shows here at cnbc, but we are the best team by far. that was awesome, guys. that was 16 years ago today. >>> now the fiscal cliff is very real and possibly very expensive overall. will going over it -- i mean just going over the thing -- really destroy consumer spending? let's use some numbers. all right. americans pay an average of $90 a month for their smartphone service. that ipad will set you back $400. yeah, one time but it is $400. get this -- the average car payment in america is now $452 a month. average price, $31,000. the tax hike on most americans if we go over the fiscal cliff and

letters is included among the hand out materials, and that was a letter that was sent in 2000, to alan greenspan. the particular time on that letter was such that it was the first time that greenspan had publicly criticized fannie and freddie, and so i wrote a letter to him commending him on that, and outlining my concerns, most of which were economically based, and asking if he would at least take a look, a closer look at what was going on. i continued to write letters like that over a period of years. in fact, all the way up to september of 2008. one of those letters, a second one that was included was a letter that he wrote to the hud secretary in 2005, the summer of 2005. our research firm had just completed a study of the nonprime market and the conclusion was almost 50% of loans that were being originated were nonprime loans. these are loans that were low documentation with high ltv's, with no income or asset verification. and it was predicated on that data wrote to the hud secretary and asked him if he would please discontinue championing, and actually cheerleading, homeownership because