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Former Fed chief Alan Greenspan says Bernanke 'doing excellent job'
WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - Former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan says current chairman Ben Bernanke 'is doing an excellent job.' 'I'm not certain I would have done anything different,' if he had been chairman today Greenspan told the CBS News program 60 Minutes in an interview to be broadcast Sunday night. CBS released a a summary of the interview to reporters. Greenspan confessed he 'didn't really get it' about how serious a threat subprime lending could be to the economy 'until very late in 2005 and 2006,' even though he was aware of many questionable subprime lending practices. The former Fed chairman also defended his 2001-2004 low interest rate policy against critics who say it opened the way for subprime abuses and a housing bubble. 'They are mistaken,' Greenspan told reporter Leslie Stahl. 'It was our job to unfreeze the American banking system if we wanted the economy to function. This required that we keep rates modestly low.' When he began the low rate policy, Greenspan was trying to 'unfreeze' the economy from the financial shock of the September 11 attacks. Now, he said, the environment is different. Then, 'we were dealing in an environment when inflation was easing,' he said, and the Fed could cut rates without fear of adding inflationary pressure. 'You can't do that anymore.' [size=1][color=silver][email][email protected][/email] dem/wash/dca COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. [/color][/size]