The End of Lunacy?

Would that it were so.

But we've had a step in the right direction. Today's testimony from Alan Greenspan, before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, included these little concessions:

“Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief,” he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

[Snip]

“You had the authority to prevent irresponsible lending practices that led to the subprime mortgage crisis. You were advised to do so by many others,” said Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, chairman of the committee. “Do you feel that your ideology pushed you to make decisions that you wish you had not made?”

Mr. Greenspan conceded: “Yes, I’ve found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I’ve been very distressed by that fact.”

I'd like to write more about this, but I owe photographs to a bunch of people in the next 2 days, and I'm going to be out of town for one of them. I will say this: Greenspan's ideology is deeply flawed. It has its roots in his early days as a fan of Ayn Rand. And we'll be paying the price for years.

Update: From the NY Times' endorsement of Barack Obama:

The American financial system is the victim of decades of Republican deregulatory and anti-tax policies. Those ideas have been proved wrong at an unfathomable price, but Mr. McCain — a self-proclaimed “foot soldier in the Reagan revolution” — is still a believer.