Greenspan's Fraud: How Two Decades of His Policies Have Undermined the Global Economy |  | Author: Ravi Batra
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Category: Book
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Media: Hardcover
Pages: 288
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Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 1403968594
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.11092
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Product Description
An explosive critique of Alan Greenspan's economic policies by New York Times bestselling author Ravi Batra F or two decades Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has held reign over economic policy, outlasting three presidents. His long tenure has had a profound effect on global economics and on individuals. In this hard-hitting expos, international bestselling author Ravi Batra takes sharp aim at Greenspan's policies since he came into power. Greenomics, Batra argues, has extracted trillions of dollars from the American middle class and sharply benefited the rich, while protecting big business. Batra argues that Greenomics has also been responsible for periods of irrational exuberance, and exposes the wild inconsistencies in his social security recommendations. Greenspan's Fraudexplores Greenspan's influences and motivations and the discrepancies between his words and actions, while revealing how his policies have national and global impact.
Book Description
For twenty years Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has held reign over economic policy, outlasting three presidents. His long tenure has had a profound effect on global economics and on individuals. In this hard-hitting exposé, international bestselling author Ravi Batra takes sharp aim at Greenspan's policies since he came into power. "Greenomics," Batra argues, has extracted trillions of dollars from the American middle class and sharply benefited the rich, while protecting big business. Batra proves that Greenomics has also been responsible for periods of irrational exuberance, and exposes the wild inconsistencies in his social security plans. This is the first book to uncover Greenspan's influences and motivations and the discrepancies between his words and actions, while revealing how his policies have national and global impact.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 50
 A Tutorial in Economic History June 6, 2005
Acute Observer (North Jersey Shore)
65 out of 79 found this review helpful
Ravi Batra is a Professor of Economics at SMU Dallas TX. This very readable book is partly about Greenspan's career in government, and politics, but mostly about the economic policies of the last three decades. Batra explains how the Federal Reserve has impoverished most Americans to enrich the wealthy, and attacked the middle class to benefit Big Business.
Chapter 1 tells the real impact of Alan Greenspan, how he unwittingly effected a global crash and spread economic misery (p.5). Greenspan's [...] swindled millions of families (p.6), while he benefited from his tax policies. Chapter 2, one of the most important, explains the [...] that was used to raise Social Security taxes in 1983 and then squander this money on tax cuts for the wealthy (p.12)! Greenspan's [...]was that he helped to raise payroll taxes, then sought to lower Social Security benefits (p.36). Chapter 3 discusses Greenspan's worship of "free profits" (p.48). Adam Smith was against mergers of competitors, and government regulation to restrict competition (p.50). The fallacy of Classical Economics is they could not account for depressions of falling output and rising unemployment (p.60). Batra explains the fallacy of "Supply Side Economics" (pp.68-70). Chapter 4 explains "Greenspan's Intellectual [...]" (p.74) as deceiving an audience by using fake or selective data for monetary gain. Greenspan saved the country from a Reagan Depression in 1987 by flooding the markets with liquidity (p.91). Afterwards he raised interest rates to regain this money and prevent inflation (p.92). Chapter 5 reports the global effects of Greenspan's policies. The 1981 tax cut led to soaring interest rates and a steep recession (p.123). Cutting the interest rate resulted in higher stock prices (p.136). The bubble of speculation inevitably burst (p.139).
Chapter 6 notes that economic theories can't explain the causes of a stock market bubble (p.141)! Batra says it is a mismatch between supply (productivity) and demand (wages and debt). When wages are high from productivity there is prosperity without a crash (p.143). Stagnant or falling wages create unemployment (p.146). Expansionary fiscal policies create a debt that comes due (pp.147-148). Regressive taxation and low wages create a global crisis. Chapter 7 explains how the income tax rate affects our standard of living. Reagan's tax cuts created a giant budget deficit and high interest rates (p.169). Clinton's raised income tax rates was followed by relative prosperity. Bush lowered the top income tax rate, which always hurts the economy and stunts economic growth (p.173). Chapter 8 documents another of Greenspan's [...], the claim that minimum wages create unemployment. This lie has been proven wrong since 1935. Greenspan wants increased immigration to keep wages down (p.191)! High money growth causes inflation (p.192).
Chapter 9 discusses the trade deficit, which could cause the budget deficit (p.199). A country that exports goods has a trade surplus, one that exports services or farm products has deficits (p.204). Prosperity comes from manufacturing (p.205). Regressive taxation has forced a gap between wages and productivity (p.214). A regressive value-added tax makes it worse. The merger mania results from a lack of competition and the desire for monopoly control of output. Chapter 10 tells how Greenspan's policies changed but still aimed at the economic destruction of the middle class (p.217). Most Americans have seen a drop in their living standards since 1973 (p.219). Regressive taxes, higher health insurance, and lowered pensions make it worse (p.220). The effect is rising bankruptcies, mushrooming debt, and a drastic decline in the household savings rate (p.221). Countries with ultra-regressive taxes like VAT (value-added taxes) experience the same slow growth and higher unemployment (p.229).
Chapter 11 lists the needed economic reforms. Batra lists the top-ten problems that need fixing (p.236). Returning Social Security to a pay-as-you-go system will benefit the economy (p.240). An ethical economic policy benefits all of us, an unethical economic policy creates massive debt and increasing poverty (pp.244-245). Batra lists 6 reforms for wages and taxes to bring back prosperity (p.247). A separate export exchange rate will benefit manufacturing (p.251). Reducing the wage gap will reduce recessions, inflation, and poverty (p.253). The long-run cure for economic imbalance is economic democracy (p.255). [But his proposals seem to idealistic, and lack the checks and balances needed in the real world. Batra does not mention that these regressive policies came about after Nixon's devaluation of the US dollar in 1971.]
GREENSPAN CROSSES THE LINE TO PSYCHOTIC SCHIZOPHRENIA May 17, 2005
Terrence Mitchell (Redfield, South Dakota)
34 out of 44 found this review helpful
Pick a day of the week a throw a dart. That seems to be what decides whether Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan will tell us we are headed for disaster or doing fabulously on any given day. It has reached the point where it is not just fence straddling, but truly troublesome psychosis. And it has been going on for a while now. Look at this from last year. First, from May 6, 2004 comments to a banking conference: "Our fiscal prospects are, in my judgment, a significant obstacle to long-term stability because the budget deficit is not readily subject to correction by market forces that stabilize other imbalances." Then a few months later to the House Budget Committee: "The most recent data suggest that, on the whole, the expansion has regained some traction." One day he is pointing out that there is an "inverted yield curve," a little thing that precedes every recession and never appears except when there is a recession about to occur, and the next he is saying the economy is wonderful - even in the face of all obvious evidence to the contrary, such as seen in this Washington Post quote typical of the situation: "Greenspan was upbeat about the economy in remarks to the House Budget Committee, and did not suggest there would be any major changes in the Fed's monetary policy, which was a welcome relief to rate-wary investors. But the short-term cheer over his comments was not enough to allay the market's deeper concerns." The problem, though, is not Greenspan himself but something we see play out on a much, much larger scale, and which has the entire nation confused about the current state of the economy, which is actually very simple to explain. You see, it is the job of the entire investment firm profession to get you to buy stocks and bonds. And economists serve these people, and tend to be Republicans. The reality is that Greenspan and others understand the second part of the above Washington Post quote, that there are permanent "deeper concerns" due to the policies implemented by President Bush and the Bush/Limbaugh Republicans. The deficit is real, the declining dollar is real, that the lack of pensions are real, that record number of personal bankruptcies are occurring each year.. So why does the reporting and commenting go back and forth so much? Because they have to say something and to try and say something positive. They sit and wait on this and that report and then are supposed to make some comment based on these snapshots. If they were simply to continue to focus on the big picture, they would have nothing new or interesting - or very positive - to say. How many times can you write, "You can't keep running up the nation's credit cards like this?" How many times can you point out that the tax cuts were not targeted in any way toward job creation - they simply handed money to wealthy people without any incentives linked to increased hiring or any other mechanism of job creation. Lots of money was handed directly to companies, and so their profits increased. That would be nice except for one catch: it was money we didn't have to give. The cheerful reporting of the sudden increase of cash among companies is the eqivalent of going out and buying a new truck and 42-inch TV on your credit card and then coming home and saying, "See how well we are doing, honey, we have all sorts of nice new stuff." The reality in that case would be that, no, things around the household haven't improved, just someone in the household made a stupid decision to run up all sorts of debt that has to be paid down at some point. We hear talk now about foreign investors getting leery of floating our endless bonds. And we hear about the inverted yield curve - the surest sign of a coming recession, when short-term interest rates are, unlike normal, higher than long-term interest rates. You have to take this all a step further, though, because this is just the government aspect of things. Though the press likes to report useless, skewed month to month "unemployment" numbers, the reality is that these numbers only include people still receiving unemployment compensation benefits. Those who have exhausted all of their benefits and are still unable to find work are called, "long-term unemployed." The number of people in this group tells the real story of unemployment, of people permanently put in the worst of financial situations. And as reality has it, the last two years has seen record numbers of long-term unemployed. On top of that, the trend that started during the Clinton years of record personal bankruptcies continues. And the trade deficit continues to set new records. So on the one hand you have a government completely broke, setting deficit borrowing records every year. And on the other, you have the American people completely overspent, credit cards run to the max and many stuck long-term without any employment. And then you have a Baby Boomer group that will be retiring many without pensions, only with dot-com-crash-battered 401K's to depend on. Lady's and gentlemen, the math doesn't add up. The only thing the Bush/Limbaughians have to try and keep things from seeming the disaster they are is their complete domination of the media - of course, as we've explained, this is why they've set up 24 hour-a-day propaganda on all media, to convince the people that things that are horrible for them are actually just fine. You can look at this report or that number, but the "conundrum" Alan Greenspan keeps coming back to is simple: How can he continue to try to say anything positive when the obvious, big-picture context of the economy is horrible and only being exacerbated by current policies? And so you see poor Alan looking like a deranged monkey on acid, saying we have a recovery, things look good, and then, just a few days later, we have a real problem, the deficits and inverted yield curve cannot be ignored.
Just because you don't agree with Batra doesn't make it bad July 6, 2005
Tom Mueller (Tyler, TX)
31 out of 40 found this review helpful
I don't see what all the fuss is from these negative reviewers who badly want to defend Greenspan's corporatization policies and support thereof which have resulted in more corporate dictatorships and poverty both here at home in the U.S. and around the world. Batra has coherently presented a book which links our current fascist anti-working class government to Greenspan and the corporate crony robber barrons on Wall Street. If you are sick and tired of the corporate fascism which has pervaded the U.S. like cancer for the past 25 years thanks to Greenspan, Reagan, Clinton, Bush I and II, and most Republicans and Democrats, this book is for you.
What does Greenspan have to show for his 20 years? June 8, 2005
Aaron Fields (Kent County, Michigan)
26 out of 34 found this review helpful
More benefits to business cronyism and libertarian destruction of America. The media has always made it look as if Greenspan has and is always the economy's best savior even when it's never so. Maybe Greenspan could take some time off and visit hard hit areas such as my state of Michigan where his libertarian leaning policies or endorsement of them have turned my state into a nearly irreversable rust belt state like many other. Ravi Batra has the courage and confidence to break a window in Greenspan's fraud and you can expect that neoconservatives and libertarians along with their media cronies will be desperate in their criticism of this book at all costs. Read this book and flick Greenspan OFF !
Greenspan is finally exposed May 4, 2005
Concerned Citizen (Chicago, IL)
46 out of 62 found this review helpful
Many people think that Alan Greenspan is the savior of the American economy. It's clear when you read this book that this is not the case. The reality that Batra lays out (often using Greenspan's own words) is often chilling and is timed perfectly with the recent spate of criticism of the Fed Chairman. What is really true is that Greenspan is an idealogue with an agenda aimed at helping big business. Batra presents an even-handed analysis that will make you think twice about any future pronouncements Greenspan makes about Social Security reform.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 50
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