Greenspan IQ query

Stephen E Philion philion at hawaii.edu
Thu Apr 6 23:30:23 PDT 2000


On Thu, 6 Apr 2000, Carrol Cox wrote:


>
>
> Michael Pollak wrote:
>
> > On Wed, 5 Apr 2000, Enrique Diaz-Alvarez wrote:
> >
> > > He may be a mediocrity, but the head of the Fed cannot possibly be
> > > *that* stupid, can he? Anybody with inside information out there?
> >
> > I heard one commentary that might have been parody, but might have been
> > straight, arguing that Greenspan was *trying* to appear clueless.
>
> There is a precedent. Eisenhower had a very powerful intellect -- and
> systematically created the impression that he was a buffoon. On the
> other hand Reagan was apparently as mindless as he pretended to be.
>
> Carrol
>
I hate to depart from this common perception (or speculation), but I would speculate otherwise. Reagan was a smart man who understood how to manipulate public opinion, the media such that people believed that he was not as responsible for policies that were unpopular. I felt at the time that Reagan's IQ might not have been all that high, but he was a sharp and clever man who understood how power is deployed and maintained....

Far more than his adversaries in most cases.

Of course this is speculation...

Steve



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