Fall of the Maestro

I can't blame Alan Greenspan for doing what he did. He made the assumption, like I did, that the people who invented these unregulated derivatives knew what they were doing and could control the markets they created. Unfortunately, we were both wrong. The people who invented these derivatives and the people who traded in them without fully understanding them had no moral compass and no concern for anything except the generation of a stream of income. This is a perfect example of lack of self respect. If you can act so selfishly and have no concern for the consequences, you have no respect for yourself. Of course, these titans of finance don't care whether they respect themselves. They use can use their millions of dollars as a salve to soothe their hardened consciences. Just look at how the executives of AIG were able to absolve themselves so easily, blaming the regulations for their problems. Their lack of introspective ability is shameful.
That is why I give kudos to Alan Greenspan for being able to publicly admit that his perception regarding the state of derivative markets was incorrect. The man was raised in a different America, when your word was your honor, before we became the largest debtor nation in the world and sold our integrity to the highest bidder. The situation we find ourselves in now is a result of our tendency to give people the benefit of the doubt, to believe that people are basically good inside, when we have really lost our soul. It's no wonder the world has lost its respect for us.