From: jiuquanhan85 <jiuquanhan85@163.com>
To: appra@qut.edu.au
Subject: Current issue |
Alan Greenspan: The Other Side[1]
Jiuquan Han & Runfeng Han
Nearly to most ordinary people all over the world who know of his name, the former Chair of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, dubbed ¡°the Maestro¡± heading the central bank in the United States for almost two decades and retiring in January 2006 after deciding the fate of national interest rates under four different presidents, is widely regarded as one of the world's most influential economic policymakers, a financial magician, a mover of the earth¡
It would have been marvelous if such a ¡°Maestro¡± had been with a logic based on contributing rather than snatching; it would have been great if this ¡°world's most influential economic policymakers¡± had had cast their powerful benevolence over those presidents, state secretaries and defense ministers! And we would have a globalized village with fewer sufferings and far smaller loss of lives, if not full of children¡¯s joy, parents¡¯ love¡
But what a nightmare in Iraq and the USA!
The heart-breaking crying of a little wound Iraqi boy four years ago has been replaced by the dreadful suicide bombings in Iraq streets followed by thousands and thousands of innocent civilian¡¯s sudden disappearing from the earth, by the tearing screaming of Iraqi mothers and fathers, by the heart-breaking weeping of more than 3,000 American soldiers¡¯ kins and by wild laughters of financiers and politicians¡
What wreaks such a havoc on earth?
Nothing but the PIRACY LOGIC developed years ago by those financiers and politicians like Greenspan and exercised by practioners like Rumsfield under the disguise of ¡°economic activity throughout the world¡±!
During the exclusive debate with Naomi Klein in Democracy Now!on September 24,2007, Alan Greenspan was quite intoxicated that he is a libertarian Republican, which means he believes in ¡°a series of issues, such as smaller government, constraint on budget deficits, free markets, globalization, and a whole series of other things, including welfare reform.¡± However, it is not strenuous at all to discover his strong impulse although he was totally ambiguous on what a whole series of other things exactly mean, on what relation exists between this whole series and globalization.
When asked by Amy Goodman to explain about ¡°the unspeakable in his circles¡± especially concerning the Iraqi war for oil, Greenspan developed his bewildering deduction in this way:
Major Premise (a negative assertion totally liable to suspicion):
If there were no oil under the sands of Iraq, Saddam Hussein would have never been able to accumulate the resources which enabled him to threaten his neighbors, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia.
Minor Premise (a positive proposition, a fact)
Unfortunately, it is well-known that there is so much oil under the sands of Iraq.
Conclusions (groundless)
1)The size of the threat that Saddam posed was scary. Saddam Hussein would be able to accumulate the resources, and ¡°he might very well be able to buy one -- an atomic device, he would have essentially endeavored and perhaps succeeded in controlling the flow of oil through the Straits of Hormuz, which is the channel through which eighteen or nineteen million barrels a day of the world eighty-five million barrel crude oil production flows. Had he decided to shut down, say, seven million barrels a day, which he could have done if he controlled, he could have essentially also shut down a significant part of economic activity throughout the world.¡±
2)And so, getting Saddam ¡°out of office or getting him out of the control position he was in, I thought, was essential.¡± Therefore,
3)¡°whether that be done by one means or another was not as important.¡±
In fact, this is not merely a logic developed by a single person but by a special class. Alan is not solitary at all: behind him is a swarm of financiers and politicians who practice or yearn to practice such an absurd logic. As Napoleon said, ¡°The hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency: their sole object is gain.¡±
Driven by such a funny-but-tragic enticing logic, the USA government has so many plausible proofs to launch the war against Iraq twice either under the guise of protecting the Middle East peace or the ¡°significant part of economic activity throughout the world¡± by means of overthrowing Saddam who, the libertarian thought, had or would have massive destructive weapons although the politicians like Greenspan is only ¡°surprised¡± to admit that they failed to detect mass destructive weapons in Iraq, that they made a slight mistake.
Past is past, of course. What should be carefully watched tomorrow?
Greenspan retired in January 2006, after deciding the fate of national interest rates under four different presidents.
But wait! Has he really retired?
Let us observe what adventures and hooks will be presented in his new 500-page memoir The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Alan Greenspan, ¡°a believer in the rule of law¡± who is indulged in making it but refuses to follow, a giant who cares ¡°critical issue, not only for domestic economies, but for the world economy as a whole¡±, to borrow his own words.
Whatever logic is presented, we do hope that Allan Greenspan would not reiterate once more his old firm folktale:
And so, getting him out of office or getting him out of the control position he was in, I thought, was essential. And whether that be done by one means or another was not as important, but it¡¯s clear to me that were there not the oil resources in Iraq, the whole picture of how that part of the Middle East developed would have been different.
At the end of turbulent 2007, let us make a wish: God be with us, and peace be with us!