allen greenspan was forced to admit that the u.s. economy was not growing as fast as he had assumed it would earlier in the year. in fact he conceded it wasn't growing at all. it had paused. it was greenspan who warned the president that the economy was so fragile that even a 15% increase in in the price of oil might be enough to tip the u.s. economy and the economies of its trading partners back into recession with the risk of government failures and tank collapses. in the oval office that day, greenspan explained to the iranian ambassadors and hedy that oil prices have caused so much chaos in the international financial system that the lending flexibility of big banks had vanished and financial networks around the world were stretched thin. he added that the huge increase in debt taken on after 1973 with oil consumers had tried to borrow their way out of the fiscal hole they found themselves in had badly shaken the confidence of markets, governments and big business. it was essential he said to the shah of iran share restraint on o

congress said hey we're in tough financial times alan greenspan needs to replace the president or you know be the leader governor or the people we elected so they were people that the people we selected they were people that people in italy worked out so it was done through a democratic process not the way i'd like to see it but it was people were democratically elected made this decision. now our viewers expressed opinions both about dean baker as e.u. as well as my response to it apocalyptic a one wrote sorry dean baker but you failed democracy one o one don't spout nonsense about parliamentary democracy where exactly it's like ministers must be elected representatives if you don't know anything about it dean too bad lauren didn't know enough to call you out now might corbell disagree responding to this you are saying i think dean baker is right and i think you're right in terms of what democratic principles should be or are in theory just that he evidently is right about how democracy operates in europe or in countries with parliamentary governments he wasn't speaking of democratic

. >> alan greenspan was monitoring for underwear sales.disturbing image all around. >> say nothing ill of alan greenspan before we go to -- let's move on to the next topic which is the most admired people in this country according to a "usa today"/gallupç list. hillary clinton is the most admired woman. oprah is number two. michelle obama is number three. and for the men, obama is at the very top, george bush is second, bill clinton third, and the reverend billy graham and warren buffett died. >> donald trump, that is appalling. >> the fact that dron nald trtr of the pope is scary. >> it makes you feel this is less most admired and best name recognition. >> in fairness to trump we're at a moment where people really like capitalism and like the sense of somebody earning money. that is his brand. >> billy bram and warren buffett. >> a final farewell to kim jong- jong-il. a soldier says how can the sky not cry? the people are all crying tears of blood? is this stockholm syndrome? >> i don't think that begins to describe it. that's very mild

leading up to this is the comments about deregulation or regulation by the banking industry, alan greenspan's philosophy of free markets. >> in history it is notoriously difficult to determine cause and effect but i will just say going along with what you mention, in 1933 franklin roosevelt and congress passed a number of banking regulations trying to ensure that banks not do again what they had done during the 1920s, namely they took depositors money and they invested in the stock market. and it seemed like a really good idea. as long as shares were going up because while they might be able to land it out that 3% on mortgages, they could make 25% a year on the stock market. and they were paying their depositors 2% and pocketing the rest. it seemed like a wonderful thing until the stock market crashed in 1929. and in the depositors, who would put their money in banks rather than buying shares of stock themselves because of the perceived greater security in banks, bound that they had lost their money and they had no reward. so, under the roosevelt administration, the democratic new deal congre

but after 2008; after the worst crisis since the depression, after the king of deregulation, alan greenspan, said he has been, quote, mistaken, about what the banks would do when face wt the risks and opportunities they did, even then wall street was able to blackmail both republicans an democrats into imposing not any change on the fundamental structural program that gai us that collapse. that's the sense of distortion i think everybody on the right and left has to acknowledge. tavis: to your point if congress is corrupted that means both the left and right, as you suggested, have been constructed -- corrupted in the process. but how do we define what bad governance is? it's impossible to use that phrase without attaching that to politics on both the left and right. it's such a politically loaded phrase. >> it is. let's be clear what i mean by corruption, first. there's a corruption in the sense of rod blagojevich or randy cunningham, people taking money and bribery. i don't think our congress is corrupt in that sense. in that sense, our congress is the cleanest congress in the history of

alan greenspan of the time called him a republican alice rivlin and he behaved that way. that is he came in and he pretty much reinforced the things she had said and once that happened then the next director that followed him and did pretty much the same things they were sort of off and running in the sense that once you create a culture you sustain it over ten or 15 years. now, you know, it is pretty well ingrained. >> professor joyce, has it been used as a political football in the past? >> absolutely. the one thing you can say about organizations that produce the information is they can't beat anybody interpret that information accurately. so whoever it is might be a supporter or an opponent of a particular policy can clearly use a cbo cost estimate for example to say this is a bad policy or good policy that's happened with the clinton health care reform in 1993 and 1994 cbo came up with an estimate that said the clinton health care reform rather than saving money which the clinton administration said would actually cause the money that was one of only many aspects peo

al greenspan at the time called him a republican alice rivlin. and he behaved that way. that his company b came in and he pretty much resource passionate reinforce the things she said. once that happened and then bob reischauer was the next director followed him and he pretty much the same things. in their sort of off and running in the sense that once you create a culture, you sustain it over 10 or 15 years, you know, now you know it's pretty well ingrained. >> professor joyce, has the cbo been used as a political football in the past? >> absolutely. the one thing you can say about organizations that produce information is that they cannot make anybody use that information. they can't even make anybody interpret the information accurately. so whoever it is might be a supporter or an opponent of a particular policy can clearly use a cbo cost estimate, for example, to say that this is a bad policy or a good policy. that certain happened with the clinton health care reform in 1993 and 1994. the cbo came up with an estimate that said that the clinton health care reform, rat

somehow mysteriously you know you could seem to be able to control the economy and obviously once mr greenspan got to power in the federal reserve in the united states he sort of appeared to be as you remember his nickname was the maestro he could sort of manipulate the economy so they don't actually get the fact that they only have very few policy tools number one the budget well the budget unless you can borrow and spend and now they can't borrow they've got a problem and the other is as you correctly point out monetary policy and once rates go to zero i mean basically all quantitative easing to me is because you can't change the price you change the value that's basically what it is and you're absolutely correct they're running out of runway now and this is the fascinating thing about europe because i hear constantly from people look it's all very simple if they could just print money everything would be absolutely totally fine and i could say well hang on let's back up a stage here the first to gaze if the c.b. could print bonnie does that change the stock of debt in any of these beleaguer

congress said hey we're in tough financial times alan greenspan needs to replace the president or you know leave again for the people we elected so they were people that the people and we selected they were people that people in the italy elected so it was done through a democratic process not the way i'd like to see it but it was people were democratically elected who made this decision. but the people they're not allowed to mario monti to be the prime minister they elected the people who chose mario monti to be the prime minister that's the way it works in italy that's where it works in greece they were they were chosen by lot to their elected representatives but just the concept of it i mean if congress said hey we need to shuffle up the executive branch i mean that would be outrageous that's because we don't have what we have we don't promote your system so it would be outrageous they do have a problem interests so you see this is being less of an issue less of a concern and terms that well i can certainly understand people being very unhappy about it they they did not bring on th

both ben bernanke and alan greenspan, haild community colleges. they're largely public funded. community colleges are suffering from this right-wing attack on government revenues. our ability to give community colleges the money they need for the skills people needed. >> when it comes to taxes the top 1% pay 38% of all federal taxes. but 49% american households don't pay any taxes at all, federal taxes, is that fair? >> if you don't think social security is a tax, in fact the social security tax which is a very significant tax, not only a tax heavily paid by lower income people. if you make $10,000, everything is taxed. if you exclude the social security payroll tax from the calculation, then the more income people -- >> but if the percentage of income that's taxed take into account and you take social security tax then that figure isn't true. >> i want to go to the audience, we have a question about lobbyists. >> i'm director of the miller center at the university of virginia. my question is, many americans believe that washington is dominated by lobbying groups that represent

greenspan announced he didn't believe in it. what we want was this, we believe that consumer legislation should be administered by an independent agency. the regulators are there to worry about the saved and standards of the banks, because of that being their preoccupation, they tend to undervalue consumers. what we did find was the major advocate consumers were at the state level of the attorneys general. that's why the president correctly picked a former state attorney general to head the agency, mr. cordray. what we did was to say here's the deal. we'll take the powers that now exist and give them to an independent agency that isn't going to be influenced by the banks the we also said we want to go beyond that and give the agency the power to regulate agencies that are not now regulated, that have grown up. check cashers, people who sell remitenses, payday lenders. the way it works now, if the republicans continue to refuse to do their duty, we're not asking them to vote yet. let's have a vote, up or down. they are saying, no

both ben bernanke and alan greenspan, hailed community colleges as a major transition belt. they're largely public funded. community colleges are suffering from this right-wing attack on government revenues. so that our ability to give community colleges the funds that gives people the skills they need. >> when it comes to taxes the top 1% pay 38% of all federal taxes. but 49% american households don't pay any taxes at all, federal taxes at all, is that fair? >> if you don't think social security is a tax, in fact the social security tax which is a very significant tax, is not only a tax heavily paid by lower income people. it's regressive. if you make $100,000, everything you earn is taxed. yes, if you exclude the social security payroll tax from the calculation, then the more income people don't pay tax -- but if the percentage of income that's taxed is taken into account and you take social security tax then that figure isn't true. >> i want to go to the audience, we have a question there about lobbyists. >> i'm the director of the miller center at the university of virgi

pat moynihan was there an alan greenspan was there and george shultz was there and a host of dr. simon.whitman and so many people that wonderful reputations. and gerald ford just could not bring himself. he just didn't want to do it because he felt it would be a tarnish. >> unlike him. >> u. later rest in this book a story about how the elder president bush, george h.w. bush went to the cia in 1975. you want to tell us briefly the story in which you feel the real story was? >> what do you mean what i feel there will story was? >> what the real story was. total whole story and in god's truth. >> gods truth. now you're talking. george herbert walker bush came to congress in 1966. i've been elected in 62. he came in with a wonderful group of people and i knew him and served in the congress with him. he at some point ended up running for the senate and losing. and then he went over to china as a representative. and he wanted to come back. and he told president ford that he wants come back and serve in an executive position. and i was chief of staff of the white house and periodically

model would be new evidence emerges, maybe the way we thought about this was wrong and even alan greenspanbanks would make sure they took greater care in their risk management. does that mean the behavior in economists of not waking up to predict this crisis disproves the rational man theory at heart of economics? ten seconds? >> you've done it. now you're going to win the nobel prize. >> well, the book is fantastic. i really enjoy looking through this. >> thank you. >> this is "the cartoon introduction to economics," the macro economics version. thanks for taking the time today for sharing your wit and your insights. >> my pleasure. >> coming on "hardball," what's got newt so testy? maybe it's those new poll numbers? chris matthews with all the politics of the day, but first our "daily rant." ari melber's idea for a resolution for a new congress, do your job. that's next. while some fiber ads use super models, metamucil uses super hard working psyllium fiber, which gels to remove unsexy waste and reduce cholesterol. taking psyllium fiber won't make you a model but you should feel a little

, transportation, homeland security, agriculture and air force, former chairman of the said alan greenspan, national security adviser director of the cia, flag officers and former the retired detective from shale oil and kraft foods. all of them are concerned about our growing dependence on petroleum and the impact on the national security and economic well-being. as was mentioned before, earlier this year, the department of energy announced that u.s. imports of petroleum declined from 12 plight 5 million barrels a day in 2005 to 8.6 million before this year. the independence dropped from 60% to 46%. now this reduction in our level of imports in just seven years is a remarkable achievement. some of this is due to the recession, but most is due to as mentioned fuel efficiency and even more important, the significant ramp up in the technologies. so far, so good, but here is the rub. when america's oil imports dropped, our foreign oil expenditures declined buy almost 60% to under $47 billion in 20005. the three injured $67 billion this year. the share of oil imports in the overall trade defic

greenspan, the same idea of having more government intervention.he geniuses, so to speak in the elite circles who think they know best what wage levels should be? think of that. we want to bring in more to bring the wages down, to benefit who? >> he says it will reduce the wage inequality. he says where over pan the educated class. >> so we want to bring more people down? my thinking is the opposite. i want to bring wages up for everyone at every level. in order to do that, my plan is one that will work. i will abolish the tax code. i will reduce the rates for businesses and individuals so we are among the lowest industrialized world. i will have a field day getting rid of government regulation, and what i'm going to do, i think is probably further than what any other candidate is willing to do, i want to dismantle the modern welfare state and and it. if we do that, we can get our budgets to balance. we cannot do it as it is today. that is what will grow the economy. >> let me give you a softball before the break. >> i have the best score on any of

after greenspan's demise for the most part having pushed forward the bubble across 20 years, one bubble to the next, all of a sudden people say what about volcker, the previous fed chairman? you know, volcker choked off money supply in '79, '08 and '81, he did force that recession, but he killed inflation, and he set the predicate for so so much of the expansion that reagan would take credit for. ultimately, reagan, says volcker, you're out of here. i'm not reuping you. why? because volcker was not a believer in the deregulation that reagan was such a champion of. he says, no, no, that doesn't get us anywhere. they need rules of the road. they've needed them since roosevelt, and they still need them. unleashing wall street is not the answer. and volcker's out in '87. but he returns to stand, all 6-8 of him, to stand behind obama. credibility. this team is sized up by the summer of 2008 as trouble, trouble for another team. i call them team b. and that's the team led, for the most part, by robert rubin, more attuned and tied to wall street. rubin, of course, the former goldman chair, gol

greenspan is the same idea of having more government intervention.geniuses in the elite circle who think they know best what wage levels should be -- think about that. we want to bring in more so we can bring the wages down. to benefit who? >> he said it would reduce the wage inequality. we are overpaying the educated class. >> we want to bring more people down. my thinking is the opposite. i want to bring wages up for everyone, at every level. in order to do that, my plan is the one that works. i would abolish the tax codes. i would reduce the rate for businesses and individuals so we are among the lowest in the in the astral world. i will have a field day getting rid of government regulation and what i'm going to do, probably further than any other candidate, i want to dismantle the modern welfare state and end it. if we do that, we can get our budget to balance. we cannot balance our budgets with the modern welfare state we have today. >> let me give you a softball before the break. >> i have the best record on immigration than any other of the ca

allen greenspan told everybody there was no housing bubble, as did ben bernanke, and all sort of smart people were saying all sorts of things. they proved not to be true. >> you are saying to question power, and looking at iraq, all these people just kind of crowd sourcing this criticism and looking at the claims and doing their research, i found that interesting. that's something we didn't have in vietnam. >> p.j. crowley, we will discuss this more, the legacy of p.j. crowley after we take this break. ♪ i think i'm falling ♪ i think i'm falling ♪ i think i'm falling [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ for you [ male announcer ] this is zales, the diamond store. shop our largest diamond store online anytime at zales.com. ♪ my hair is gone ♪ cheap cologne ♪ motor home ♪ i'm the rocket man! [ both ] ♪ rocket man ♪ burning out his fuse up here alone ♪ burning out his fuse up here alone? ahh. [ male announcer ] crystal clear fender premium audio. one of many premium features available on the all-new volkswagen passat. the 2012 motor trend car of the year. ♪ and i think it's gonna be

this is sharon greenspan from chicago, actually a suburb of chicago. i'm not related to the earlier -- [laughter] although i think that's pretty funny that i'm watching a show, and i hear my name. but that's the way it goes. um, i'm a retired attorney, um, but i teach a book club of suburban women in the northern suburbs of chicago. and as you were speaking, before i texted one of the other people in my book club who helps pick books, and we will probably do either the ugly americans or sex on the moon this coming year, especially since a number of these women, you know, have had their dealings with hedge funds, etc. so the ugly americans, i'm leaning towards. but the thing that i wanted to call in about the most is, ben, you know, i'm sure your parents are totally excelling. i have a 20-year-old, and i only hope in another ten years she will succeed the way you've succeeded with yours -- >> host: sharon, what is -- >> guest: you don't know that? >> caller: that's why i called in. earlier you had asked ben what a men. was, and he didn't really answer y

alan greenspan has written of books, and he was talking about policy on immigration.t of control stuff on the southern border, and he is talking about skilled workers, encouraging skilled labor to come into the country, and i want you to hear why he wants this to occur. >> one of the most controversial things i have gotten into a book is to augment immigration of skilled labor. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] the new leader is quite young, but not as young as some western analysts expected. >> what were some of the things you were thinking of? at things the changing better or moving to more progress and a more democratic north korea? >> in 2009, at they try to give people a better living conditions. at that time, the leader realized that the country needed to change. he met with challenges. the new leader will make more progress with the reform and try it more, probably with great courage and caution. we will wait and see. >> the changes, of course, are not just the changes that you menti

they try to do with greenspan said, to know zero and certainly you cannot control it. the chinese have completely different perspective. they're trying to control that bubble. the indications are that since they began to introduce all sorts of administrative restrictions on the ability of households and companies to buy apartments since april of last year this is showing off the property market that has cooled down enormously. the difficulty is to know by how much and what prices are really doing. the worst that could happen in my opinion is a precipitous price decline across the board in urban china. if that happens in 20 percent over a relatively short time frame you're unavoidably going to see a lot of bankruptcies and development, and they will pull in their wake a lot of bankruptcies in the construction industry and in the thousands of suppliers. that has not happened so far. it could happen, and if it happens it will be bad. my sense is that beijing feels comfortable that they can keep this under control. they're first line of defense would not be to reopen the m

they try to do what alan greenspan said. you cannot control a bubble but the attendees have completely -- but the chinese have a completely different perspective. since they began to introduce all sorts of administrative restrictions on the ability of households and companies to buy apartments since april of last year, this is showing off the property market. it has cooled down. the difficulty is to know by how much and what prices are really doing. the worst that could happen is a precipitous price climb across the board in our urban china. if that happens, over a relatively short period, you will see a lot of bankruptcy's with developers and they will pull the bankruptcy is in the construction industry and the thousands of supplier industries of the construction materials. that has not happened so far. it could happen and if that happens it will be bad because that would be hard to stop. my sense is that beijing feels comfortable that they can keep this under control. their first line of defense would not be to be open the

former chairman of the fed alan greenspan, national security advisers, directors of cia can't flag officersnd former marketing shale oil and foods. all of them are concerned about our growing dependence on petroleum and the impact on the national security and economic well-being. as was mentioned before, earlier this year, the department of energy announced u.s. imports of petroleum declined from 12 plight 5 million barrels a day in 2005 to 8.6 million barrels of oil this year. u.s. import dependency dropped from 60% to 46%. this 31% reduction in our level of imports in just seven years is a remarkable achievement. some of this is due to the recession but most is due to as mentioned fuel-efficient see an even more importantly, significant ramp up in the domestic production by technologies. so far, so good, but here is the rap. with america's legal imports dropped our foreign oil expenditures climbed buy almost 50% from $247 billion in 2005 to $367 billion this year. the share of oil imports in the overall trade deficit grew from 42% in 2005 to 51% this year. worst of all, the price of a gal

alan greenspan from the national security advisers, directors of caa, flag officers had formerly titledcers from shale oil and kraft foods arc earned about our growing dependence on petroleum and the impact on our national security and economic well-being. as was mentioned before, earlier this year, the department of energy announced u.s. import of petroleum declined from 12.5 million barrels a day in 2005 to 8.6 this year. dropped from 60% to 46% to 30% reduction in the level of imports in just seven years is a remarkable achievement. some of this is due to the recession, but most is due to as mentioned fuel efficiency and even more importantly, significant ramp up in domestic production enabled by technologies. so far so good. while america's oil imports dropped, for oil expenditures climbed by almost 50% from $247 billion in 2005 to $367 billion this year. the share of oil imports in the overall trade deficit occur from 32% in 205251% this year. worst of all, the price of a gallon of gasoline increased by 65%. despite the lower demand, u.s. drivers spent this year gasoline more than

pat moynihan was there an alan greenspan was there and george shultz was there and a host of dr. simon.whitman and so many people that wonderful reputations. and gerald ford just could not bring himself. he just didn't want to do it because he felt it would be a tarnish. >> unlike him. >> u. later rest in this book a story about how the elder president bush, george h.w. bush went to the cia in 1975. you want to tell us briefly the story in which you feel the real story was? >> what do you mean what i feel there will story was? >> what the real story was. total whole story and in god's truth. >> gods truth. now you're talking. george herbert walker bush came to congress in 1966. i've been elected in 62. he came in with a wonderful group of people and i knew him and served in the congress with him. he at some point ended up running for the senate and losing. and then he went over to china as a representative. and he wanted to come back. and he told president ford that he wants come back and serve in an executive position. and i was chief of staff of the white house and periodically

pat moynihan was there an alan greenspan was there and george shultz was there and a host of dr. simon.whitman and so many people that wonderful reputations. and gerald ford just could not bring himself. he just didn't want to do it because he felt it would be a tarnish. >> unlike him. >> u. later rest in this book a story about how the elder president bush, george h.w. bush went to the cia in 1975. you want to tell us briefly the story in which you feel the real story was? >> what do you mean what i feel there will story was? >> what the real story was. total whole story and in god's truth. >> gods truth. now you're talking. george herbert walker bush came to congress in 1966. i've been elected in 62. he came in with a wonderful group of people and i knew him and served in the congress with him. he at some point ended up running for the senate and losing. and then he went over to china as a representative. and he wanted to come back. and he told president ford that he wants come back and serve in an executive position. and i was chief of staff of the white house and periodically

transportation, homeland security, agriculture, navy and air force, former chairman of that allen greenspanrmer retired from shell oil and kraft foods. all of them are concerned about our growing dependence on petroleum and the impact on our national security and economic well-being. as was mentioned before earlier this year, the department of energy announced that u.s. imports of tetrault trolling declined from 12.5 million barrels a day in 2005 to 8.6 billion barrels of oil this year. u.s. depends to drop from 60% to 46%. this 31% reduction in our level of imports in just seven years is a remarkable achievement. some of this is due to the recession but most is due to come as mentioned, fuel efficiency and even more importantly significant domestic production and able by technologies. so far, so good but here's the rub. when americans oil imports dropped, our foreign oil expenditures climbed by almost 50% from $247 billion in $252,367,000,000,000 this year. the share of oil imports in the overall trade deficit grew from 32% in 2005 to 251% this year. worst of all the price of a gallon of g

recommendation would then go to washington where the federal governors, along with at the time alan greenspan would consider what our district was recommending and all of the other 11 districts and then they had to deliberate on the national economy in order to make the decision. >> ron paul's been making a big deal out of the secrecy aspect of the federal reserve. i don't know if you saw any of that when you were on the board. but given what has come out about this secret loans to banks, what's your position? >> well, here again when i was on the board, openness was the order of the day, not seektiveness. >> how was that openness manifested? were they open meetings? was the public invited to come? >> no. the public wasn't open -- wasn't invited to come to the meetings but everything that went on in the meetings was published in various documents and various forms. they had the beige book and had a couple of other books, i don't remember what they are now. it was opened in that regard. secondly, any time you wanted to go visit the federal reserve the doors were open. so they were open in that

alan greenspan has written of books, and he was talking about policy on immigration. usually talk about out of control stuff on the southern border, and he is talking about skilled workers, encouraging skilled labor to come into the country, and i want you to hear why he wants this to occur. >> one of the most controversial things i have gotten into a book is to augment immigration of skilled labor. we pay the highest skilled labour wages in the world. if we open up our borders more than we do, we would attract a substantial quantity of skilled labor, which would suppress the wage levels, because we have been subsidizing by government, meaning our competition is being kept outside the country, but if we bring in other workers to suppress the level of wages relative to lesser skilled, we will reduce the degree of inequality. but that is the guy who used to run the printing press. >> this is so typical of government intervention as thinking. milton friedman, they reject government intervention as i do. what you have just heard is the same idea of having more government

recommendation then goes to washington where the federal governor's, along with at the time alan greenspan, would consider all other a 11 districts, and then they had to look at the national economy to make a decision. >> ron paul has made a big deal out of the secrecy aspect of the federal reserve. >> yes. >> i do not know if you experience any of that when you were onboard. given what has come out about the secret loans to banks, what is your position? >> openness was the order of the day, not secretiveness. >> hal was that manifest it? were there open meetings? was the public invited? >> no. the public was not invited to come to the meetings, but everything that went on in the meetings was published in various documents in various forms. we had a couple of books, i do not remember what they are now. anytime you wanted to visit the federal reserve to find out how it operated, the doors were open. they had a public relations department. they were open. this latest revelation about the secrecy of the federal reserve, i was somewhat surprised. not only was i surprised they made secret loans