Mr. Bubble Spots One

Greenspan, the man who said bubbles can not be foreseen, told Bloomberg there is a bubble in stocks and bonds.

Greenspan gave a speech in which he stated the following (my emphasis):

Clearly, sustained low inflation implies less uncertainty about the future, and lower risk premiums imply higher prices of stocks and other earning assets. We can see that in the inverse relationship exhibited by price/earnings ratios and the rate of inflation in the past. But how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions as they have in Japan over the past decade? And how do we factor that assessment into monetary policy? We as central bankers need not be concerned if a collapsing financial asset bubble does not threaten to impair the real economy, its production, jobs, and price stability. Indeed, the sharp stock market break of 1987 had few negative consequences for the economy. But we should not underestimate or become complacent about the complexity of the interactions of asset markets and the economy. Thus, evaluating shifts in balance sheets generally, and in asset prices particularly, must be an integral part of the development of monetary policy.

He calls it “irrational exuberance”. He never mentions the federal reserve is the culprit behind the bubbles. From the 8/19/97 FOMC transcript.

Cathy Minehan doesn’t think rising asset prices is inflation. Above are two clueless people who ran the US economy for an extended period of time. They could not see the dot com bubble. They did not realize they created the housing bubble.