Credit-default swaps, I think, have serious problems associated with them. Alan Greenspan More Quotes by Alan Greenspan More Quotes From Alan Greenspan I don't think it's possible for the Fed to end its easy-money policies in a trouble-free manner. Recent episodes in which Fed officials hinted at a shift toward higher interest rates have unleashed significant volatility in markets, so there is no reason to suspect that the actual process of boosting rates would be any different. I think that real pressure is going to occur not by the initiation by the Federal Reserve, but by the markets themselves. Alan Greenspan different real thinking There are no easy choices. Easy choices are long gone. Alan Greenspan choices gone long We are in the midst of a once-in-a-century credit tsunami. Central banks and governments are being required to take unprecedented measures. Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity are in a state of shocked disbelief. Alan Greenspan credit government self In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. Alan Greenspan saving safety gold Regulation of derivatives transactions that are privately negotiated by professionals is unnecessary. Alan Greenspan unnecessary derivatives regulation The arts develop skills and habits of mind that are important for workers in the new economy of ideas. Alan Greenspan skills ideas art It's a bubble. It has to have intrinsic value. You have to really stretch your imagination to infer what the intrinsic value of Bitcoin is. I haven't been able to do it. Maybe somebody else can. Alan Greenspan bitcoin able imagination Any informed borrower is simply less vulnerable to fraud and abuse. Alan Greenspan money business success If prices go down, we will have problems - problems in the sense of spillover to other areas. Alan Greenspan financial problem said Before I met Ayn Rand, I was a logical positivist, and accordingly, I didn't believe in absolutes, moral or otherwise. If I couldn't prove a proposition with facts and figures, it was without merit. Alan Greenspan merit believe facts I don't know where the stock market is going, but I will say this, that if it continues higher, this will do more to stimulate the economy than anything we've been talking about today or anything anybody else was talking about. Alan Greenspan economy talking today Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the 'hidden' confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. Alan Greenspan money gold rights If you think you understand what I am saying you do not understand what I am saying. Alan Greenspan economist ifs thinking Revolutions are something you see only in retrospect. Alan Greenspan retrospect revolution I do not deny that many appear to have succeeded in a material way by cutting corners and by manipulating associates, both in their professional and in their personal lives. But material success is possible in this world and far more satisfying when it comes without exploiting others. Alan Greenspan business success life This decade is strewn with examples of bright people who thought they built a better mousetrap that could consistently extract abnormal returns from the financial markets. Some succeed for a time. But while there may occasionally be mis-configurations among market prices that allow abnormal returns, they do not persist. Alan Greenspan abnormal may people The need for values is inbred. Their content is not. Alan Greenspan inbreds values needs The process of innovation is, of course, never ending. Alan Greenspan courses innovation process Corruption, embezzlement, fraud, these are all characteristics which exist everywhere. It is regrettably the way human nature functions, whether we like it or not. What successful economies do is keep it to a minimum. No one has ever eliminated any of that stuff. Alan Greenspan successful stuff way How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values? Alan Greenspan irrational assets memorable