Nor can private counterparties restrict supplies of gold, another commodity whose derivatives are often traded over-the-counter, where central banks … - Alan Greenspan

I was aware that the loosening of mortgage credit terms for subprime borrowers increased financial risk. But I believed then, as now, that the benefits of broadened home ownership are worth the risk.

Of course, shedding the debt burden would be a happy development for our country, but it would nevertheless pose a big dilemma for the Fed. Our primary lever of monetary policy was buying and selling treasury securities-Uncle Sam's IOU's. But as the debt was paid down, those securities would grow scarce, leaving the Fed in need of a new set of assets to effect monetary policy.

From the development of the textile loom two centuries ago to today's Internet, output per hour has increased fifty fold.