Congressional hearing into the financial crisis
The following is an extract from the Congressional Committee for Oversight and Government
Reform hearing held in October 2008, chaired by Henry Waxman.
Waxman: Dr. Greenspan, you were the longest-serving chairman of the Federal Reserve
in history and during this period of time you were perhaps the leading
proponent of deregulation of our financial markets. Certainly you were the
most influential voice for deregulation. You have been a staunch advocate
for letting markets regulate themselves. Let me give you a few of your past
statements. In 1994, you testified in a congressional hearing on regulation
of financial derivatives. You said “there is nothing involved in Federal regulation
which makes it superior to market regulation.” In 1997, you said,
“There appears to be no need for government regulation of off-exchange
derivative transactions.” In 2002 when the collapse of Enron led to renewed
congressional efforts to regulate derivatives, you wrote the Senate, “We do
not believe a public policy case exists to justify this governments’ intervention.”
Earlier this year, you wrote in the Financial Times, “Bank loan
officers, in my experience, know far more about the risks and workings
of their counter parties than do bank regulators.” My question for you is
simple: were you wrong?
Greenspan: Well, I think that’s true of some products, but not all. I think that’s the
reason why it’s important to distinguish the size of this problem and its
nature. What I wanted to point out was that – excluding credit default
swaps – derivatives markets are working well.
Waxman: Well, where do you think you made a mistake then?
Greenspan: I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interest of organizations, specifically
banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting
their own shareholders and their equity in the firms.