Best. Greenspan Art. Ever.
Depiction of the former Fed Chair, contemplating the utter mess he is responsible for, as he slowly oxidizes (rusts away). Simply fabuluous.
Via Mike Whitney
Greenspan Sculpture
January 12, 2007 1:30pm by Barry Ritholtz
This content, which contains security-related opinions and/or information, is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon in any manner as professional advice, or an endorsement of any practices, products or services. There can be no guarantees or assurances that the views expressed here will be applicable for any particular facts or circumstances, and should not be relied upon in any manner. You should consult your own advisers as to legal, business, tax, and other related matters concerning any investment. The commentary in this “post” (including any related blog, podcasts, videos, and social media) reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints, and analyses of the Ritholtz Wealth Management employees providing such comments, and should not be regarded the views of Ritholtz Wealth Management LLC. or its respective affiliates or as a description of advisory services provided by Ritholtz Wealth Management or performance returns of any Ritholtz Wealth Management Investments client. References to any securities or digital assets, or performance data, are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. The Compound Media, Inc., an affiliate of Ritholtz Wealth Management, receives payment from various entities for advertisements in affiliated podcasts, blogs and emails. Inclusion of such advertisements does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof, or any affiliation therewith, by the Content Creator or by Ritholtz Wealth Management or any of its employees. Investments in securities involve the risk of loss. For additional advertisement disclaimers see here: https://www.ritholtzwealth.com/advertising-disclaimers Please see disclosures here: https://ritholtzwealth.com/blog-disclosures/
What's been said:
Discussions found on the web:Posted Under
Previous Post
World’s Assets Hit Record Value Of $140 TrillionNext Post
The Tao of Steve
What do they call it ‘The Stinker’? (Sorry Auguste for the rip off)
Any way they should make copies – like all those copies of bulls or Remington Replicas… cowboys or indians on a horse like you see in broker lobbies… Man I bet they would sell like crazy… everyone would have to have one.
“Utter mess”? Okay, I have to ask: What mess? How can you compare the actions he took as opposed to the supposedly fiscally conservative Republicans who controlled Congress for 12 years (who actually managed to ONE-UP THE DEMOCRATS in terms of pork and expansion of government entitlement programs)?
Please.
Be careful around that thing, kids. It looks like it could rot away like Damien Hirst’s shark.
Interesting site, that Atlantic Free Press. Some of the graphics are very amusing.
Rust is like inflation.
It never sleeps!
As for the mess he made? He got away clean and didn’t backdate any options so by capitalism’s new frighteningly low standards, Greenspan was a complete success!
You know, The Mess That Greenspan Made . . .
A Hieronymus Bosch might get the last Congress plus Bush / Cheney about right.
I think it is unfair to declare any “mess”, nothing has happened yet, and I am not saying that anything will happen. At least let’s wait for a disaster to come and THEN show how Al-G was responsible. Look at the markets, still going fabulous for the longest period. Crude oil did nothing, 9/11 nothing, Katrina nothing. People keep predicting disaster and it never comes. Housing has cooled a bit, but not crashed. it couldn’t be better! I miss him.
I miss him.
See? I’m telling you, they would sell like crazy. Better than St. Joseph statues.
I just remembered, I need a tetanus booster. Thanks Barry!
“How can you compare the actions he took as opposed to the supposedly fiscally conservative Republicans who controlled Congress for 12 years…”
To the best of my knowledge, Greenspan is a Republican. He was appointed by Reagan.
Not only is Greenspan a Republican, he is (was?) a disciple of Ayn Rand. How ironic…
he is (was?) a disciple of Ayn Rand. How ironic…
Ya maybe the piece should be titled ‘Alan Shrugged’.
Be careful… that statue has magical powers… I hear Lord Voldemott is going to try to get it, and that attempt will lead to the epic battle of Harry Potter #7…
I’ve been told the magical powers have something to do with making money appear out of thin air…
dryfly: Dude, he banged Ayn Rand… they were lovers…
I hear she gave great Fountainhead.
It looks like it’s sculpted out of something that a bull left behind.
Great Art!! However it’s brutal. It’s like a perpetual object of revisionist history. As it tarnishes and rusts, he will only look worse and worse with time.
BTW: Some of the comments above are shallow and inappropriate, but the Fountainhead joke was good. Ayn Rand would have approved. Not a prude. Too bad she went psycho-philosopher in her older years on all the good Libertarian folk. But what a fine author!
Sadly, the article that this image came from is total CRAP. Talk about a diatribe! Real problems, yes. Good analysis, no. Total garbage. Flawed, reckless.
Everyone is so quick to judgment these days. Even with the new guy on the block, Ben. I saw Cramer on some episode of Mad Money take a blowtorch to an Uncle Ben Box with Ben Bernanke’s face on it. It made me sick, and it was not funny. If I was the president of CNBC, I would have docked Cramer’s salary for that stunt and made him issue an apology. Sorry. Slight tangent there.
So even with my disdain of inaccurate government statistics, a love for this blog and its perspective, horror at our current economic situation, belief in gold-backed currencies, and so fourth, I still I find myself needing to mount a defense for Greenspan.
He presided over the Fed during a very dynamic and LONG period of history. Given the forces of globalization, periodic market failures, currency collapses, the fall of Communism, the fall LTC and ilk, and now a hellish and expensive ongoing war, are we REALLY sure that he performed poorly? He is human, grew with the position, served under many presidents, and was an understated figurehead with a delicate job to perform.
In the end, I would not take him to task for his “forecasting”, any more than we should take Barry to task for his forecasts. The best you can do is to use your personal wisdom to try and see ahead, and then try to act upon it, be it through investing or trying to keep an economy going. The Fed Chief’s job description is more of a manager than of an all knowing crystal ball gazing forecaster. Only in the private sector do we have Oracles from Omaha.
Congress is ultimately to blame for any financial mess. Spend, spend, spend. They can regulate, change tax policy, and do any damned thing we let them do. They have been so lame for so long it boggles the mind. Greenspan had to keep the train on the tracks despite what poor decisions our elected Congress made.
My memory recalled that he warned about the problems we are about to face, and are currently experiencing. So I double checked, and found much more than I expected.
To take a trip down memory lane, I Googled the phrase “Greenspan Warns”. Check out the first 20 hits.
From warnings on the housing bubble, social security, deficit spending, credit derivatives, the cost of war, home equity extraction, exotic mortgage products, and so fourth, it’s all there. Please, keep his actions in context and pay the man some respect for his service. Imagine what he could have earned in the private sector over the course of his tenure. He chose to serve.
Let’s not be too harsh on Mr. Greenspan. Each time I allow myself to become too critical of him (and I do think he made some mistakes), I stop and realize he had a defined dual mandate at the Fed… a mandate that I’ve suggested here is a near impossibility for the Federal Reserve Board to uniformly maintain.
That statue is very emblematic of a responsible man torn in such a way.
It’s because the Federal Reserve itself was born in an era still dominated by The Classical Theory of economics. Therefore, the assumption at the time was that the correct administration of domestic monetary policy would be able to facilitate the maintenance of both mandates. That’s where the error is, because it can’t.
The frenzied market run associated with the blooming of the Internet wasn’t his fault… and when it blew off and 911 happened, he probably realized that a robust housing market was about all we had at the time as a potential economic engine that would prevent a severe recession.
Even still, the abuse of creditworthiness standards by lenders and the use of exotic enablement mortgages that combined to result in too large a housing boom were not his fault. By the time these abuses became obvious, it was already quite late in the game and the Fed no longer had the effective tools to slow the housing juggernaut without attacking the working capital side of the economy through short rates. I do think Greenspan took them too low initially, and too rapidly.
Whether you think he was effective or not, it’s hard to know what the American political scene might’ve looked like with a recession after 911 worse than the one we had in 1981-82.
I liked Alan Shrugged too but Fountainhead made me smile. Only when compared to Volker does Alan really come up way short. But as I posted earlier, he has so far escaped blame for anything so perhaps the sculpture should have been coated with teflon instead of a rustable material. Time will tell if solving all problems with massive injections of liquidity was the best move, but it sure worked for Easy Al.
“DOH!”
OK, here it goes:
After a Fountainhead, Alan shrinked. :)
Sculpture titled:
“A man regretting not to have worked in Wall street at the time of Mr Greenspan era”