September 23, 2007

Greenspan on The Daily Show

The WSJ has an interesting post in their Economics Blog covering Alan Greenspan's recent visit to The Daily Show, including a video of the seven-minute discussion. What's great about being on The Daily Show, as opposed to many other publicity venues, is that John Stewart will ask real questions in a fair manner. (It certainly helps that his viewing audience tends to be more educated than other audiences. The attack vectors of Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly make it very hard to hold a reasoned discussion on their shows.)

In this case Stewart asks Greenspan to explain why the economy needs the Federal Reserve System at all (see Purposes and Functions). Greenspan explains it very well, in simpler terms than what you will find in an economics textbook, although also in very short terms. I really recommend people pick up a copy of The Age of Turbulence.

Posted by josuah at September 23, 2007 6:33 PM UTC+00:00