Morning Clip
Greenspan: US “Can pay any debt it has”
"We can always print money," says former Fed chair indicating that S&P downgrade is about something else
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan Former Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, reiterated a point Sunday that many economists have made during this debt crisis: It’s not just about creditworthiness.
“The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that. So, there is zero probability of default,” said Greenspan on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
He said that the S&P downgrading of U.S. debt — more than indicating a genuine risk of default — “hit a nerve that there’s something bad going on.” He said the move “hit the self-esteem of the United States, the psyche… . It’s having a much profounder effect than I conceived could happen.”
Greenspan said too that the downgrade would likely precipitate market turmoil, but that the possibility of a double-dip recession depended on Europe..
Appearing alongside Greenspan, Austan Goolsbee, the chairman of the White House’s council of economic advisors, hit out at S&P. “Well, the basic case is they made a $2 trillion math error and forgot to check their work,” he said. “So rating agencies that didn’t make a $2 trillion math error reaffirmed the AAA status.”
Watch the clip below:
Natasha Lennard covers the Occupy movement for Salon. A British-born, Brooklyn-based journalist, she has been covering Occupy Wall Street since before the first sleeping bag was unrolled in Zuccotti Park. One of the first journalists arrested at an Occupy action, she has managed to enrage Andrew Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. You can follow her on Twitter (@natashalennard), and email her any Occupy updates/videos/ideas to natasha.lennard@gmail.com More Natasha Lennard.
