Once considered the infallible guru of American high finances Mr. Alan Greenspan expressed to Washington lawmakers that the financial crisis was in his words: “broader than anything I could have imagined”.

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks… were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders,” declared the former Federal Reserve Chairman in his testimony before the House Government Oversight Committee.

Awkwardly articulate, considering his classic cryptic statements throughout his 18-year tenure on the state of the economy, Mr. Greenspan clearly admitted that failure by financial institutions to self-regulate represented “a flaw in the model”. 

Unequivocal in his expressions the former Fed Chairman spoke of being in “a state of shocked disbelief”, terming the crisis as a “once-in-a-century credit tsunami”

The inability to “imagine” today’s “credit tsunami” stems from the very fact that greed, defined by Merriam-Webster as “a selfish and excessive desire for more” is completely at odds with foresightedness. To illustrate: If a glutton anticipated the consequences of his gluttony would he remain a glutton?  By the same token, after celebrating “greed” as a tenet of wealth creation, can we expect greedy financers to self-refrain from unscrupulously amassing fortunes at the expense of undermining their own solvency?

How hard was it to imagine that financial organizations led only by self-interest coupled with lax or non-existing government regulation would gamble and loose solvency at the expense of the wealth of its depositors?

Very little is said about how much of the retirement funds have been lost.   Part of the creed used to be that retirement funds should finance Wall Street, luring workers to contribute their modest savings with the promise of greater gains by investing in the stock market, in other words by appealing to depositor’s… greed.  

The unfettered free-market dogma also demonized Social Security thus depleting it from the funds that warranted its very existence.  Oddly enough some free-market philosophers today still harshly criticize the Argentinean government for nationalizing $30 billion worth of pension funds, a measure the American government might very well have to adopt itself.

Today the real prospect of our elderly having no means to support themselves or those healthy enough forced to stack shelves in a supermarket in exchange for a minimum wage is a direct result of financial greed and the poor imagination of those supposedly called to protect the interests of the American people.

Unlike the late Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, at least Mr. Greenspan, a prominent “philosopher” behind the dogma of “unfettered free-markets” and deregulation is still around to witness the consequences of his gospel and practice of deliberate and purposeful inaction.