I’m with those people who are amazed at the oracle-like status given Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve. Even debating his legacy (he’s on his way out after the New Year) within the narrow world of the financial markets, he’s been a total shill for the Bush Administration’s completely irresponsible economic policies: roaring fiscal deficits created by mind-boggling tax cuts, which will ultimately lead to higher interest rates…but I digress.

It’s worth checking out a speech he gave yesterday before the National Italian American Foundation. It’s truly a window into the mind of those who push the levers of the economy. The overall thrust: ain’t the “free market” great?

Here are a few of my favorite tidbits:

Financial stability may turn out to have been the most important contributor to the evident significant gains in economic stability over the past two decades. Reality Check: economic stability? That’s just an Alice-in-Wonderland defense of his own disastrous record, particularly in sitting by while the 1990s stock market bubble blossomed, then, burst, hurting a lot of people who were drawn into the casino atmosphere on Wall Street. Economic stability? Bravo on the record of historic fiscal and trade deficits!!!

As the 1980s progressed, the success of that strategy confirmed the earlier views that a loosening of regulatory restraint on business would improve the flexibility of our economy. Reality Check: ah, yes, the old false argument that deregulation helped unleash the wonderful market. Hmmm…what about that pesky savings and loan debacle, or the current demise of the airline industry (partially as a result of the wonders of deregulation) or the ever concentration of media ownership?

“…flexible labor policies appear to promote job creation, not destroy it. An increased capacity of management to discharge workers without excessive cost, for example, apparently increases companies’ willingness to hire without fear of unremediable mistakes. Translation: isn’t America great? Companies have even more flexibility to just dump workers whenever convenient!

Most recently, the flexibility of our market-driven economy has allowed us, thus far, to weather reasonably well the steep rise in spot and futures prices for oil and natural gas that we have experienced over the past two years. Reality Check: who’s “us,” white man? A lot of people have not weathered the increase in prices at the pump very well–and here comes the winter which will cause severe hardship to many working people who have to shell out sometimes double what they paid last year to pay for home heating oil.