The economic shit's gonna hit the fan now

Here's an NYTimes item from yesterday that should give us all a little pause: Greenspan Shifts View on Deficits
First, Alan probably has been prudently making sure he personally is not drowning in debt to fuel a consumerist lifestyle (look at how he dresses!). Second, the banker has been the leading advocate for debt reduction and non-deficit budgeting. But now, according to the article,

Mr. Greenspan's thesis, which is not accepted by all traditional economists, is that increases in personal wealth and the growing sophistication of financial markets have allowed Americans ó individually and as a nation ó to borrow much more today than might have seemed manageable 20 years ago.

This sounds to me -- not an economist, granted -- like the same kind of logic that drove the Keynesian deficit building of the last half of the 20th century. "It couldn't happen to us. We're too smart."

Posted by Grayson at March 17, 2004 08:18 AM