C. Kilander,
Greenspan was indeed dyspeptic. These guys know that the financial "meritocracy" proved to be a bunch of screw-ups - whining screw-ups at that. Since everyone has discovered the great art of securitization, they figure they have got risk sussed. Securitization is a wonderful thing, but risk is still there, like a Hindu god. What was very revealing was a question put to Rubin after his speech on the international crisis to the effect of: "Mr. Secretary, you say we've learned things because of the Asian crisis. Weren't these the same things we were supposed to have learned after the Mexican crisis? Why should we believe that speculators won't do the same things all over again?" Given that this was asked with the backdrop of the LTCM scandal, it was interesting to me that Rubin was caught off guard (a rarity). He caught himself and made a nice little presentation about the new things we've all learned from this new crisis. However, you could see that his initial impulse was to say "There's nothing stopping speculators from doing this stuff all over again." Of course he, better than anybody, knows it's true and inherent to the system.
peace