Greenspan: Iraq was all about the oil
By Nicole Belle Saturday Sep 15, 2007 3:02pmLook at all the water carriers starting to fall by the wayside...
WaPo:
By the end of last year, Greenspan writes with some bitterness, Washington was "harboring a dysfunctional government. . . . Governance has become dangerously dysfunctional."
However, he calls Clinton a "risk taker" who had shown a "preference for dealing in facts," and presents Clinton and himself almost as soul mates. "Here was a fellow information hound. . . . We both read books and were curious and thoughtful about the world. . . . I never ceased to be surprised by his fascination with economic detail: the effect of Canadian lumber on housing prices and inflation. . . . He had an eye for the big picture too."[..]
Known for his restrained if not incomprehensible public statements over the past several decades, Greenspan's direct criticism of Bush and his economic policies comes as the economy is emerging as an issue in the 2008 presidential race. And the man Greenspan praises so highly for fiscal probity is married to the current front-runner for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.[..]
"The Age of Turbulence" is likely to be mined word by word on Wall Street, where the Masters of the Universe will seek clues to how to make billions. Greenspan dives deep into his economic data, his experiences, his philosophy and meetings with world political and economic leaders.[..]
Without elaborating, he writes, "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."
Ian Welsh at FDL says that Greenspan doesn't get to rehabilitate his reputation.
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that the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States — from the steel, automobile and textile industries to computers and telecommunications — “is a plus, not a minus..."
Greenspan is a fucking idiot if he thinks that. Just how are we to fix our horrible trade imbalance if we don't make anything here? Sooner or later we are going to have to make the things we need as it will be far too expensive to ship them here from China.
Hah! Hah! Hah! More lies from Greenspan. Gotta admit these NeoCon scum are clever. Stories within stories within stories.
Here's what Iraq is mainly about.
The denial of the oil to others was a factor but not the major one.
WOW! I had no idea...
I thought that was Al that I saw chanting "No blood for oil!" back in 2003. What a crazy liberal hippie!
But for real, nice of him to say this now.
He maintains that immigration reform, “by opening up the United States to the world’s very large and growing pool of skilled workers,” will help reduce the inequality of incomes.
No shit, but that means I get to earn a tenth of what I should in having to compete with thousands more job seekers than I should, job seekers from third world countries willing to work for third world wages. Again, Greenspan might be right in some ways, but he's got his head in his ass in others.
Posted under influence
Wow. So now Greenspan is friends with Hillary. Who will be next ...
Greenspan's too little, too late opinion on Bush is a bit disingenuous. Instead of serving the American people, he served what was politically expedient at the time. People like him deserve a large share of the blame for the mess our country is in both economically and in our foreign policy. History will not look kindly on him I think.
Yes, it’s about oil. But…
“You auction off a one-dollar bill to the highest bidder, but you set the rules so that the second highest bidder also has to pay the amount of his last bid, even though he gets nothing. Would people ever enter such an auction? Not only do they, but according to Martin Shubik, the game's inventor, the average winning bid (for a dollar, remember) is $3.40. Many winners report that they bid so high only because their opponent ‘went completely crazy.’”
From Alan’s perspective, we are now in a similar bidding war with Iraq’s oil. We will NEVER recover the amount spent in this war from the oil-revenues. There just isn’t that much oil in Iraq – and Iraq wasn’t our primary source of oil anyway. This Administration just “went completely crazy” in a failed – and deadly - economic game.
It sure seems to me that the vast preponderance of books being published about the Bush administration are overwhelmingly negative. Almost every former insider has very negative things to say about the man and his policies. Same can be said about the books published from a reasoned outside perspective.
It would be interesting to know if this is unusual and how it compares to books and political opinions published during other presidential terms. I mean, the volume of condemnation seems noticeably large and loud to me. Historically, how unusual is this?
Didn't Greenspan come out in support of Bush's totally stupid tax cut/rebate idea back in 2001 by saying that it would be a really bad thing if we paid off the national debt too fast?
Greenspan presided over the best financial expansion in the countries history...but lets give credit where credit is due........Bil Clinton and his intellect got the job done......sure there will be some cons come by and say it was Newts congress that did it........yeah...right..It was BC and everyone knows it.
“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.”
No shit? Ya think?
Greenspan gave some GREAT testimony infront of the senate foreign relations committee last summer:
http://www.senate.gov/~foreign/hearings/2006/hrg060607a.html
it would be worth watching if found on c-span. he basically outlines how iraq should have minimal effect on oil prices and how the oil trade has changed over the last couple decades.
Smack_dab @ 5:
No shit, but that means I get to earn a tenth of what I should in having to compete with thousands more job seekers than I should, job seekers from third world countries willing to work for third world wages. Again, Greenspan might be right in some ways, but he's got his head in his ass in others.
You get things right i see. What we need is a world-wide minimum wage. Then we'll talk about REAL competition. Sorry about the caps, can't help it.
Look at all the water carriers starting to fall by the wayside…
More like rats fleeing a sinking ship . . . . .
Amazing how quickly it falls apart under a single administration. Shows the importance of competent leadership. Somethings failed when the party-system nominates as "it's best" the crew -- not just the President -- that oversaw this destruction.
High water mark for the US? Will take time to clean up this mess. Look what America -- not just this President -- has repudiated (Cited Article at C&L reports Greenspan's words): ". . .an advanced economy hinges on property rights, the rule of law, a culture of trust, contracts, debt, reputation, self-interest and 'creative destruction' "
Turn left and right, and see the damage to the justice system, communication. Contracts are seen as things to ignore. America's economy may have been advanced, but it is receding.
Snip . . . . . . .
The problems began when Greenspan dropped interest rates to 1% in 2003 for more than a year pumping trillions of low interest credit into the economy. This created the appearance of prosperity but it also inflated a massive equity bubble in housing which is now in its death throes. The Fed “rubber stamped” many of the “creative financing” scams which lowered lending standards and turned the subprime fiasco into a $1.5 trillion doomsday machine.
The devastation in real estate is almost too vast to comprehend. The mortgage bubble is roughly $5.5 trillion, and yet, prices have just begun to fall. It’s a long way to the bottom and there’s bound to be plenty of bloodshed ahead. Two million homeowners will lose their homes. 151 mortgage lenders have already gone belly up. Many of the hedge funds—which are loaded with billions of dollars in “mortgage-backed” securities are struggling to stay alive. Perhaps the most shocking projection was made by Yale University Professor, Robert Schiller, who believes that home prices could decline as much as 50% in some of the “hotter markets”. (Schiller’s book “Irrational Exuberance” predicted the dot.com bust before it took place) The effects on the US economy would be considerable. If other factors come into play—like a stock market crash and a subsequent period of deflation—we could see housing prices descend 90% as they did between 1928 and 1933.
True, it was largely about oil, but it was also largely about Israel.
good for firedoglake....don't let greenspan think he can get away with his crimes against democracy in the US. he's not going to George Tenet his way out of this one. we have a long list of turncoats for the Hague....he'll be one of them
As Ray McGovern put it..
Oil
Isreal
Logistics
andy @ 19:
and MONEY
The petro-benjamins?
Having read a number of pieces on Greenspan over the years from the perspective of others in the financial world, he aspired to power and was willing to sell his soul in the name of pesonal advancement. He learnt his lessons well in playing both sides of the fence, yet in the twilight of his life, even his conscience must keep him up at night.
"Inside The Fed" By Martin Mayer, you can find an interesting passage. " A little learning, Alexander Pope argued, is a dangerous thing." " Looking out at the world from their eagles' nests, central bankers must feel once again that a little ignorance is a necessary evil."
Greenspan wasn't ingnorant as he played to his political masters will quite well. In 1966 Greenspan wrote a paper that dealt with the reasons why bankers hated gold which by the way is the only true money that our Constitution calls for, not fiat that is given legal tender status. He knew then just as he does now, the the Federal Reserve of which he was a part, is doomed to fail as more worthless dollars with nothing to back them up will surely collapse as the house of cards it is. Then, the U.S. taxpayer will be asked yet again to bail out their own government who bought into the Kenyesian theory that you can inflate yourself out of any economic mess you have created.
This won't happen this time, as both the Chinese as well as the europeans will force the U.S. not to live beyond its means. That day is not far off.
If I may, a follow up article that adds the extra perspectives:
http://adereview.com/blog/?p=42#more-42
If I may, a follow up article that adds a few extra perspectives and dimensions on the topic of a neocon human failure.
http://adereview.com/blog/?p=42
Andrew @ 22:
Agreed.
Oil is the lubicant that makes it so much fun for America to be f***ed in the ass while bent over on the back seats of our SUVs.
The White House is already sending its flunkies out to defend them.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1618999120070916
And even more telling graphic representing a neocon human failure.
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/09/what-bushs-invasion-would-look...
Why don't they follow up with a story about the PNAC documents that were drawn up before the 2000 campaigns. These neocons wanted control of the middle east before Bush was even selected. This is not news. It's finally an admission of guilt.
Wow. I for one am shocked, simply shocked.
In due time it doesn't matter anymore. The US is financially bankrupt -- and the federal banks can print as much money as they like, this is how it ends: a depression. Bush may have won two elections, he lost a country.
Another link in the chain of corruption attempting to alter his legacy. Too late, Alan. You're still making money off people's misery.
"Iraq was all about the oil"
[sarcasm="yes" volume="lathered and dripping with"]
NO. FUCKING. KIDDING.
[/sarcasm]
A European @ 30:
Yup, the Virgin America planes soon will be full of the Europeans coming to the US for one reason only - shopping. Their currency is twice as strong as dollar, they can buy twice as much, they earn twice as much, they spend twice as much... in Europe of course, so here whatever they buy is a bargain, after ticket cost adjustment, you have fun factor and ever growing sky miles, still a god damn bargain. Europeans, Asians, Chinese, Saudis, Dubaians - we the US Americans welcome you so as you shop remember, Wal Marts are for the Yanks, all the rest is for ya!! Mr Greenspan, on behalf of the working Americans, we the people thank you.
many of us on C & L said it was all about the oil from the beginning. but,as usual, too many chose to keep their fingers up their butts and in their ears.
Wow, two shocking revelations. The occupation is about oil, and economists love the Clintons!
One of the key quotes from Greenspan's new book has to do with the pattern of Republican "borrow and spend" policies that bankrupt the country and then the Democratic Presidents have to clean it up.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/14/213112/337
If you go to this site and scroll down to this chart you'll see the huge spikes that are the Reagan and Bush Presidency and the huge dip in the national debt that was the Clinton Presidency where he made the largest pay down of the national debt in history!
Annual New Debt, 1941 - Present
http://www.marktaw.com/culture_and_media/TheNationalDebt.html
The damage that Bush and the Republican congress have wrought though is the deepest hole that the United States has ever been in and many financial entities around the globe feel that we can't recover from it and the sale of US treasuries has started to decline.
Hell even Cheney has moved his assets to funds that specialize in European and Asian investments!
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/CheneysBettingonBad...
The Next President's Already Screwed
by bonddad
Democrats have high hopes for the 2008 election. And they should. Bush’s policies have done an incredible amount of damage to the Republicans. It’s doubtful they will recover anytime soon. But should a Democrat win, the fiscal mess left by Bush has already predetermined the next president’s primary policy goal: to clean-up the mess Bush is leaving behind.
09/30/2006 $8,506,973,899,215.23
09/30/2005 $7,932,709,661,723.50
09/30/2004 $7,379,052,696,330.32
09/30/2003 $6,783,231,062,743.62
09/30/2002 $6,228,235,965,597.16
09/30/2001 $5,807,463,412,200.06
Total Debt Outstanding: $9,016,288,006,279.21
Notice the dollar is currently trading near its lowest level in over 35 years. This tells us a very simple fact: foreigners are losing confidence in the dollar’s value. This makes the dollar extremely vulnerable to a random economic event.
The combined reality of these two data sets is simple. Either we start to realistically deal with the deficit now, or the deficit will start to deal with us. And frankly, it’s best for us to deal with it. If random economic events make us deal with it, it’s going to hurt a whole lot more.
The bottom line is Bush has already made it impossible for the next president to do anything accept raise taxes and cut spending. That of course makes electoral victory beyond 4 years from now extremely difficult.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/16/104950/765
The greed of the oil companies has led us down the primrose path we've been on for how many years? I didn't know until recently that John Hinckley's father is a big oil guy who contributed a great deal to Poppa Bush's campaign against Reagan. I wasn't of an age I was paying much attention to the news in those days, but does anyone know if this got much news play when Hinckley made his assasination attempt on Reagan?
Smack_dab writes:
'Didn’t Greenspan ...saying that it would be a really bad thing if we paid off the national debt too fast?"
I don't believe that is any longer a problem or conern.
Dear Mr. Andrea Mitchell,
Why couldn't you resign during your term and go public with this? Many people were killed and crippled and trillions are going to be end up spent because you wanted to fit in with Pinochetists
Alan Greenspan was once a part of Ayn Rand's kooky cult of "Objectivism".
Read "The Ayn Rand Cult" by Jeff Walker for the full, tragic story.
Strange duck that Greenspan. And how is hollowing out our manufacturing good for the u.s..
I think he forgot to mention the invisible 97% of the u.s. population left with NADA.
He thinks Clinton's NAFTA move is good for who? Good for the disassociated 3%.
Have fun counting your stinking coins in hades you old poop.
[Deleted. Blogwhoring-Sitemonitor]
Here's some interesting numbers:
Iraqi oil reserves: According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), "Iraq holds more than 112 billion barrels of oil"
So, let's say, 120B barrels.
Now, It looks like the USA is going to piss away at LEAST a trillion dollars on the Iraqi war. So, divide a $ trillion by 120 billion and you get:
$8.33 per barrel.
Now, the USA has only pissed away about 1/2 that so far. So cut $8.33 in half and you're looking at $4.16 per barrel, which is about 5% of the price of a barrel of oil today. So, with $3.00 a gallon gas, 15 cents is going directly into war.
Thought you;d like to know....
jim @ 33:
Not excactly. Europe and the US will be hit. Both. This coming crash isn't national. This an international piramid scheme based on the assumption that the demand for houses (ie mortgages) in the US would be infinite. We're as much in it as you, if it weren't for this war. That's an extra burden.
Oh, and to me the US is not the extra fun factor of shopping; It's Thomas Jeffferson's monument in which is carved: "We the people..."
jim @ 33:
You are so correct. I work for an global corporation and when my co-workers from the UK come to the US on business, they bring empy suitcases and go shopping at expensive malls and return to the UK with filled suitcases.
hope @ 37:
This is news to me. Never heard about the Hinckley connection.
Coffins draped with flags @ 46:
Yep. The Bush and Hinckley families were friends & neighbors. Those Texas oil families are tight.
mudshark @ 11:
A.Citizen @ 2:
you forgot world conquest, and centralized banking.
What a hypocrite ! Greenspan assisted the president in maintaining America's financial status. He could honestly and rightfully stated that the war deficit would have America ending up owing billions to China, etc. Greenspan could have easily stated we could not afford an open ended war. I think Greenspan should hide his head in shame. He is an absolute disgrace. As to the value of many of these economists, I just cannot help but think of the old film "The Brotherhood of the Bell". The economists control the country.
Smack_dab @ 5:
That sounds rather confusing. If we "open up the United States to the world's very large and growing pool of skilled workers", including, as you say, "job seekers from thrid world countries willing to work for third world wages", how are they going to afford our cost-of-living on their "third world wages"? They would have to pay them in the same range as anyone else, otherwise they get an extremely cheap employee, and we get more homeless panhandling on our corners.
Meh...
Greenspan is a bit slow on the uptake...
I think he has started smoking the pot... About time... I mean it is only the number 1 or 2 Cash crop in the United States.
Well, duh! The only question is why the hell Pelosi doesn't get some balls and starts impeachment procedures. Going to war under fake pretenses is certainly an impeachable offense.
truthteller @ 42:
You are joking, right?
truthteller @ 42:
You are kidding right? There was no other possible way of getting oil (and inflating the price of oil to enrich the American oil tycoons) other than invading, occupying and killing?
Taarak @ 8:
Thanks for the insight Taarak, I had not thought of Iraq in terms of bidding up the price of oil. Perhaps several people including Cheney knew what game theory could do to the dollar and oil price, and I'm certain that Bush was clueless.
Unhealthy Exuberance, Hunt Bros. and Silver, new housing on marginal land, private equity firms etc....etc...
Greenspan is another trickle down economist who must now realize that the game is over and wants to switch sides.
WAAAY too late Greenspan, you thought that the huge tax break to the weathiest Americans would buy the economy time.
The big problem was that all of those freed-up dollars went to overseas investments.........OOPS!
Help spread the word about what Greenspan said.
Simply watch this short video: "the Iraq war is largely about oil" - Alan Greenspan", rate it 5 stars, favorite it and comment on it. This all helps get even more people to hear the truth because it move the video up the ranks.
See the important links in the video description: "The Iraq Oil Law... a little known document at the heart of the war. A law that would put the country's most valuable resource into the hands and wallets of foreign multinationals."
GREENSPAN.....ON 60 MINUTES NOW! CHECK YOU LOCAL LISTINGS.
Greenspan: The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
You left another really nice quote out of your post:
" Greenspan told the president. "The hard truth was that Reagan had borrowed from Clinton, and Clinton was having to pay it back."
Very true.
truthteller @ 42:
I am a liberal.. I do not drive my car every day... I barely drive it a few times a month.
I make a concerted effort to limit my use of fossil fuel as much as I can... as well as supplanting my electric energy consumption with what renewable resources are available in my area, most of which is wind and bio-mass.
So that is one down... only 99 more to ask, better hope there is not another 2 out there like me.. or your bullshit is toast.
That being said, besides your obvious troll baiting, and self promotional whoring.
Anyway... We all know how inflexible your conservative brains are, but why the idiotic refusal to admit that we need to find alternatives rather then wasting our efforts and resources stealing oil from others, in a modern day .. loot and pillage operation?
Alan wants to sell some books.
A European @ 46:
Europe won't be hit to the extent that people will truly suffer, nor will China, Korea or Japan. No European nation has 9 trillion dollar budget deficit, as a matter of fact, most of them run surpluses. I can imagine the feeling. Being an American and seeing the world so much better off without so many commitments because of a single idiotic foreign misadventure and policy miscalibration. Last one out please turn off the lights.
stick a fork in this war.
it's done.
A.Citizen @ 2:
Good points but it is not the economic impact of imperialism that worries me the most. If you read Chalmers closely, it is the very freedoms that we are trying to defend that will be destroyed by the military industrial complex.
jim @ 64:
You may well be onto something here. i wonder if the odds makers in Vegas are taking bets on what Bernanke will do come the FOMC meeting this Tuesday. If he drops the rates by 1/4 % all he is doing is buying time. If he stands pat, the markets will head south, but it won't be fatal. If he raises the interest rates by 1/4% the world wide markets will crash, of that I have no doubt.
Funny thing about Greenspans interview this evening on 60 minutes. When Leslie Stahl asked him what his greatest worry was, the old boy said INFLATION! I'll bet you helicopter ben was watching this evening as well and would be surprised if he states that the Fed is still data dependent so as to by more time in trying to figure out what his next move is. But given that we are in an election cycle along with the alledged independence of the Fed, I wouldn't be surprised if he just might take a que from easy Al and raise rates.
Did you catch the part when asked by Stahl.....you have GM and Ford begging on their hands and kness for an interest rate cut. Easy Al's reply?!?! Maybe they should build better cars.....Ouch!
arbc @ 42:
That's true, yeah! but they trot him out when the war in Iraq needs some attention - and it works again!
Bill "the shill" O'liely actually told the truth for once and admitted before the democrats took over congress on letterman that this war was and is about oil yet this site and the media gave him a complete pass. Why is it now somehow a surprise when greenspan inserts one sentence into his book with no elaboration. Anyone who was not an ignorant sheeplike republican or an independent knew that Bush a failed former oil exectutive and cheney an oil executive with extensive government experience in nixon's corrupt administration could figure out that this war was "largely about oil" as soon as bush was finished making a token effort to "get osama dead or alive" in afganistan. He could not wait to get his hands on Iraq's largest stockpile of oil because Sadaam was making contracts with Europeans to pump the oil and haliburton and bush's oil buddy's could not live with being shut out of the equation. Need more proof then the recent revolation that a bush poineer has secured a contract with the kurd's to access the oil.
This was posted by someone who said it better then me on another site:
The war in Iraq has and always will be about the flow of Middle Eastern oil into the United States and the western hemisphere. I just wish that all Americans knew the truth about what is happening over here in Iraq. The U.S. military has been ordered to carry out the president’s dirty work and the loyalty of the military is being abused. The military is dying in the name of oil, not preserving America's freedom. The U.S. presence in Iraq is keeping oil out of the hands of the Russians, Chinese, French and Japanese whom Saddam Hussein had oil exploration contracts with. These contracts were going to be honored once the sanctions expired. The intent of the invasion was to capture or kill Saddam Hussein and nullify the contracts Iraq had made in order to protect our "National Interest". There were never any weapons of mass destruction nor was terrorism an issue in Iraq until we invaded. The sole purpose of this man’s presidency was invading Iraq. This is why the 2000 Presidential election was so critical for GWB, which explains why it was a stolen election from the very beginning.
Posted by: realamerica1 | Sep 17, 2007 1:10:17 AM
The War on Iraq, and predominately Bush's entire presidency has been about depleating the national treasury and less about oil.
To say that the Iraq War was about oil and realizing that we have gotten NOTHING from that oil disgraces the american lives that have been flung into the abyss of that war. It's about ruining the middle class and in that Bush and his cadre of sychophant republican goose stepping lackies have scored tremendous gains.
The new gilded age has come to America... The war on Iraq being about oil makes as much sense as Bush being both a compassionate man and a conservative. He's an incurious libertarian in the bad meaning of both of those words.
I think that the Iraq oil argument is proffered as a believable facad that hides their true motives.
Who could doubt that it's about oil. That's like forgiving a drunk for being drunk in public.
Saying that it's all about killing the middle class and raping the nation makes it a treasonable offense and one that should get Bush and his merry band of reverse Robin Hood criminals run out of government and this country...
Iraq being solely about oil is a lie.
Another crook jumping ship. Like Powell with his UN speech, Greenspan got in front of Congress and the cameras years ago to testify that a tax cut (for the rich) would not hurt the economy.
And why all those meetings with Rice, Powell and Cheney before the invasion? I'm sure to show how to hide the true costs of the war from the public.
Lock him up with the rest of this administration.
If he had said this in 2002 or 2003 it could have made a difference.
Now, it's just more hot air.
.............And giuliani and mccain benefits from that OIL MONEY in the form of campaign donations from the HUNT OIL COMPANY which just signed a long term contract with the Kurds.
If the neocons are unelectable ..Hillary is the next best thing. Only prob. .....nobody likes her. They never give up.
Iran is a big problem too in that they changed their currency to the yen. Sadam did that but he changed to the euro.Got 17 per cent more for his oil. Acting like we are bringing democracy to the mid east is a perverted joke only a neo com thinks is funny.
A.Citizen @ 2:
You are correct. Building those permenent military bases and even building a base 3 miles from the Iran border was another reason. They are playing a huge game of Chess. War with Iran and Syria. Linking Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Afganistan to be on the back door of Russia and China.
[...] Crooks and Liars [...]
[...] where the Masters of the Universe will seek clues to how to make billions…. source: Greenspan: Iraq was all about the oil, Crooks and [...]
as Chris Rock says: "bling bling"
The truth is zionists like Greenspan have dragged the West into The Middle East conflict on Israel's side, on the back of a series of false flag terror attacks in the West blamed on 'Muslim Terror'. Thats the truth. Thats why you don't hear it.
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