It’s amazing what time can do to clear up the minds and visions of America’s brightest financial figures. I have compiled a few statements that should give you complete and total faith in our leader’s abilities to lead us in the worst direction possible.  Remember, these are the SMART ONES.

May 19, 2006
No less an authority than former Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan has declared that the housing boom is over. “Home sales are off, applications are off, everything is going in the same direction,” Greenspan said in remarks before the Bond Market Association.

Greenspan claimed that while regional housing markets might experience more severe price fluctuations than others, the national housing market itself would remain stable.

May 19, 2006
Greenspan’s successor, Ben Bernanke, is coping not only with the incredibly low levels of personal savings among Americans, but rising energy prices, a stagnating housing market, and soaring gas costs.

The new Fed chief recently told a Federal Reserve conference in Chicago that he expects a “very orderly kind of cooling” to the housing market over the next few months.

September 25, 2007
Greenspan comments: “My own guess is the odds are less than 50-50 that we’re heading to a recession, but there is no question we’ve got significant pressure on home prices, which I expect to move down quite considerably lower,” he said.

“And that will curtail the net housing wealth of the American household, and history tells us that causes some weakness. It’s too soon to call this one really.”

September 25, 2007
Ben Bernanke comments: In testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, Bernanke said a freeze-up in credit markets since August could worsen an already sharp housing downturn and hurt other segments of the economy. He offered few signals as to future policy, however.

“We took that action (rate cut) to try to get out ahead of the situation and try to forestall potential effects of tighter credit conditions on the broader economy,” Bernanke said. “There’s quite a bit of uncertainty, so we’re going to have to continue to monitor how the financial markets evolve … and try to keep reassessing our outlook and adjusting policy.”

And so Gentle Readers, there you have the comparison of where we have been and were we are going under the astute leadership of the finest financial minds that money can buy. Oh, there is a no return, no guarantee policy on FED chairman.

Also remember that these are the same guys who said the housing sector was not large enough to bring down the overall economy. I guess school is in session.