Greenspan redux
Mr. Greenspan came to see goodness in all
manner of credit. Since he became head of the Federal
Reserve system, debt levels rose from $28,892 for the
average family in 1987 to $101,386 in 2005. Mortgage
foreclosure rates, personal bankruptcies, and credit card
delinquencies rose steadily and are now at record levels.
Mortgage debt rose $6.2 trillion during his tenure at the
Fed. By January 2005, it had reached $8.5 trillion, or
approximately $80,849 per household. But none of this
seemed to bother the chief of America's central bank...