Chomsky on Greenspan 's ''Ensuring Greater Worker Insecurity''

[Ichingcarpenter]

From the NY times 1997

Job Insecurity of Workers Is a Big Factor in Fed Policy
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Published: February 27, 1997

For months now, the Federal Reserve has been poised to raise interest rates, but has held off. Why?

The answer lies mainly in what the Fed's chairman, Alan Greenspan, describes as a powerful recent force in the American economy: job insecurity. In his testimony to Congress yesterday, he clearly elevated this insecurity to major status in central bank policy...............



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http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/27/business/job-insecurity-of-workers-is-a-big-factor-in-fed-policy.html



Chomsky's comment in 1997 about Greenspan's testimony

[Javaman]

1. Ayn Randspan. nt

[polly7]

2. Sanders calls him out - angrily.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. I think Chomsky's observation predated Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine

But then


History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

[polly7]

4. Yes. True. nt.

[struggle4progress]

5. I'm guessing this may be the same Greenspan who got paid truckloads of money

over many many years for doing nothing and then finally admitted after retiring that he hadn't really known what to do

It's easy to cheer about other people's insecurity when you get paid well to do nothing

[gratuitous]

6. Well, but if Greenspan faced insecurity, how could we expect him to do his job properly?

Isn't it odd how the same incentives that spur on our overlords aren't necessary for the rank-and-file? "We have to pay the CEO these enormous salaries! How else are we going to get top-flight management?" But workers? A dime a dozen, totally interchangeable cogs in the corporate machine. Experience and ability count for nothing, lowest possible wage is the sole factor in employee retention. Oh, and they're such a disloyal bunch, too!

Imagine how much worse Greenspan would have been at doing nothing if he wasn't paid well and fawned over by the financial media?