Alan Greenspan Lt Quotations

Although we cannot know with certainty until the books are closed, the growth of productivity since 1995 appears to be among the largest in decades,

Although this treatment of the cost of options is not ideal, it is arguably superior to their treatment in shareholder reports, where options are generally not expensed at all,

Although the tendency in recent months toward stabilization in the East Asian economies is encouraging, clearly those economies are not out of the woods, as recent events attest,

Although the global economic expansion appears to have been on a reasonably firm path through the summer months, the recent surge in energy prices will undoubtedly be a drag from now on.

Although the business cycle has not disappeared, flexibility has made the economy more resilient to shocks and more stable overall during the past couple of decades,

Although layoffs seem to be diminishing, surveys indicate that households continue to be worried about the condition of labor markets,

Although I doubt that the U.S. dollar will lose its status as the world's reserve currency any time soon, there are in my judgment lessons to be learned from the experience of (Britain's currency) as it faded as the world's dominant currency,

Because the pay-as-you-go system will be very difficult to manage, we need an alternative,

But, given our current state of knowledge, I find it difficult to envision central banks successfully targeting asset prices any time soon,

hesitancy to face up to the difficult choices that will be required to resolve our looming fiscal problems.

Through most of last year's slowdown, in contrast to the usual pattern, the household sector was a major stabilizing force, ... As a consequence, although household spending should continue to trend up, the potential for significant acceleration in activity in this sector is more limited.

I think the IMF has done as much as it thought it understood it could do, ... I don't know what alternative policies could have been implemented which could have significantly altered the pattern that emerged once the vicious cycle began to accumulate to the degree that it did.

Issuance of equity and of bonds by lower-rated corporations has come virtually to a halt -- even investment-grade companies have cut back substantially on their borrowings,

is on an unsustainable path, in which large deficits result in rising interest rates and ever-growing interest payments that augment deficits in future years.

The likelihood is that we shall be seeing some lower prices on imported goods as a result of the difficulties in Asia, ... But they will not permanently suppress the risks inherent in the tightened labor markets.

While the adjustments may be difficult for a time, these crises will pass. Stronger individual economies and a more robust and efficient international economic and financial system will surely emerge in their wake,

Forecasting our futures is built into our psyches because we will soon have to manage that future. We have no choice. No matter how often we fail, we can never stop trying.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to deny that something profoundly different than the postwar business cycle has emerged in recent years,

Surely difficult challenges lie ahead for the Fed, some undoubtedly of our own making, and others that will be thrust on us by market or other forces,

Lowering the deficit further in the near term, however, will be difficult in light of the need to pay for post-hurricane reconstruction and relief,

I think that the market is ultimately driven by real forces, ... Once you get a decline started, it's not clear whether people use that as a reason to sell or buy.

Financial markets, along with households and businesses, seem to be reasonably well prepared to cope with a transition to a more neutral stance of monetary policy, ... Although many factors may affect inflation in the short-run, inflation in the long-run, it is important to remind ourselves, is a monetary phenomenon.

The addition of the Chinese economy to the global marketplace will result in a more efficient worldwide allocation of resources and will raise standards of living in China and its trading partners,

The bottom line, however, is that, while immigration and imports can significantly cushion the consequences of the wealth effect and its draining pool of unemployed workers for awhile, there are limits,

Although household spending should continue to trend up, the potential for significant acceleration in activity in this sector is likely to be more limited than in past cycles,

I find it difficult to find rational arguments for that particular initiative,

I find it difficult to believe, for example, that the crises that arose in Thailand and Korea would have been nearly so virulent had their central banks published data prior to the crises on net reserves instead of the not very informative gross reserve positions only,

The Federal Reserve has been unable to find any credible purpose for the huge balance sheets built by Fannie and Freddie other than the creation of profit through the exploitation of the market-granted subsidy,

It is possible to get markets which are too tight, which create inflationary imbalances and ultimately undercut the recovery,

Today, economic value is best symbolized by exceedingly complex, miniaturized integrated circuits and the ideas -- the software -- that utilize them, ... Most of what we currently perceive as value and wealth is intellectual and impalpable.

We are seeing an evolving new international economy. We are in the process of learning how it works as we are doing it, ... Fortunately, the trauma that came out of the Russian default created so much risk aversion ... we probably have time to be deliberative in determining how the (international monetary) structure ought to be structured.

The fact of the matter is, we do not have an unlimited amount of labor, ... the wealth effect cannot persist indefinitely.

American consumers might benefit if lenders provided greater mortgage product alternatives to the traditional fixed-rate mortgage.

Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth.

Productivity is notoriously difficult to predict.

new innovations have begun to alter the manner in which we do business and create value, often in ways not readily foreseeable even five years ago.

The true measure of a career is to be able to be content, even proud, that you succeeded through your own endeavors without leaving a trail of casualties in your wake.

The fundamentals are in place for a return to sustained healthy growth,

Large deficits will result in rising interest rates and an ever-growing ratio of debt service to GDP (gross domestic product),

difficult to suppress growing market exuberance when the economic environment is perceived as more stable.

The economy is turning, and credit comes in with a lag, ... To the extent that a number of small firms are finding it difficult to get the credit they need at a price they can afford, that's likely to change for the better.

I suspect that with the underlying database publicly available, it is just a matter of time before the ex-post results of analysts recommendations are compiled and published on a regular basis, ... I venture to say that with such transparency, the current upward bias of analysts' earnings projections would diminish rather rapidly.

Because it is difficult to suppress growing market exuberance when the economic environment is perceived as more stable, a highly flexible system needs to be in place to rebalance an economy in which psychology and asset prices could change rapidly,