New Greenspan Book Ghostwritten by Krugman

In the 500-page book, “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World,” Mr. Greenspan describes the Bush administration as so captive to its own political operation that it paid little attention to fiscal discipline, and he described Mr. Bush’s first two Treasury secretaries, Paul H. O’Neill and John W. Snow, as essentially powerless.

Of the presidents he worked with, Mr. Greenspan reserves his highest praise for Bill Clinton, whom he described in his book as a sponge for economic data who maintained “a consistent, disciplined focus on long-term economic growth.”

By contrast, Mr. Greenspan paints a picture of Mr. Bush as a man driven more by ideology and the desire to fulfill campaign promises made in 2000, incurious about the effects of his economic policy, and an administration incapable of executing policy.

Though Mr. Greenspan does not admit he made a mistake, he shows remorse about how Republicans jumped on his endorsement of the 2001 tax cuts to push through unconditional cuts without any safeguards against surprises. Today, Mr. Greenspan is indignant and chagrined about his role in the Bush tax cuts.

Wow, not that I disagree with anything he said, but I am surprised that he wrote in such stark terms that the the Bush administration puts politics over policy, that Clinton was his favorite president, and that the tax cuts were a bad idea. If I didn't know any better I would think the book was written by Paul Krugman.

And then to top it all off, Greenspan goes into Michael Moore territory:

“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he says.

As much as the book sounds interesting, the prospect of reading 500 pages, written by a man whose speech is so indecipherable that he had to propose to his wife (NBC News reporter Andrea Mitchell) three times before she understood what he was doing, is a bit too daunting for me.

via NY Times and Times Online