Former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said he had few tools to contain the spread of subprime mortgages and dismissed critics who blame the Fed for keeping interest rates too low.
In the text of an interview released on Thursday, Greenspan said he failed to realize the importance of the subprime loan problems "until very late in 2005 and 2006," as he was preparing to step down as Fed chairman, but that he could not have stopped them in any case.
Greenspan, in the interview with CBS television, said that one of the Federal Reserve governors raised a red flag on those lending practices, but that there was little he could do.
"Well, it was nothing to look into particularly because we knew there was a number of such practices going on, but it's very difficult for banking regulators to deal with that," Greenspan said.
Many of the subprime loans, often made to people with shaky credit, were made outside the banking system. The high rate of failure of these adjustable-rate loans is blamed for the financial market turmoil and recent squeeze in credit markets.
Greenspan, in his first US media interview since stepping down in January last year, said his successor Ben Bernanke "is doing an excellent job."
He also took a swipe at critics who argue that his move to slash the federal funds rate to as low as 1 percent fueled too much speculation and contributed to the housing collapse and current economic turmoil.
"They are mistaken," Greenspan said in remarks to be broadcast on the 60 Minutes program tomorrow.
"It was our job to unfreeze the American banking system if we wanted the economy to function. This required that we keep rates modestly low," he said.
On Bernanke, Greenspan said he endorsed the current Fed chairman's tougher monetary policy stand, saying the current situation is not the same as when he began cutting rates.
"We were dealing in an environment back there where inflation was easing," he said.
"We could have acted without the fear of stoking inflationary pressures. You can't do that anymore. I'm not certain I would have done anything different" than Bernanke under the current circumstances, he said.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS