green.jpgAnd you counted the Maestro out. You called him over. You said he was through. Blamed the bubble on him. Cursed under your breath when he appeared on CNBC. You got your Greenspan tattoo lasered off. (Bet you didn’t know they hurt worse coming off than going on, right? Bet you wished you picked a less sensitive spot.) But he’s been there. Waiting. In the shadows. Biding his time. Lurking in the dark until the right moment. And, like predator from cover, WHAM! He’s back! Like that he’s moving markets again. Housing, she will recover. The thickness of the briefcase is being measured. Fedwatching is cool again.

U.S. stocks fluctuated as former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said housing may be on the verge of recover, helping the market recover from an early slide spurred by concern share sales will dilute earnings.
Financial shares in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index reversed most of a 4.7 percent decline after Greenspan told a conference that companies are able to raise more capital than they expected. Pfizer Inc. led gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average after Credit Suisse Group AG said the company may boost its dividend after taking over Wyeth. Exxon Mobil Corp. led energy shares higher as oil climbed to a six-month high.

U.S. Stocks Fluctuate as Greenspan Says Housing May Recover [Bloomberg]

Comments (29)

  1. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 4:17 PM

    Never mind AG was misqouted, all he said was “my bowels are moving again”. Rats.

  2. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 4:19 PM

    Behold! Here comes Greenspan. Anyone who is short the market should sell out or the God of Irritianal Exuberance will pwn you!

  3. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 4:24 PM
  4. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 4:37 PM

    Housing recovery huh? You mean because they’re letting anyone with a pulse get a FHA 3% down mortgage? If a loser in the midwest can’t save 10% for a dp on a $100,000 home history is just going to repeat itself…

  5. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 4:53 PM

    I was hoping he fell into Andrea Mitchells pussy and was gone forever.

  6. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 4:53 PM

    @4
    i’m a loser in the midwest, what’s a down payment?

  7. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 4:55 PM

    How is this any different than when Buffet is talking his book? Because, Buffet never had a devil’s threeway with Ace Greenberg and Barbara Walters?
    Isn’t Greenspan nothing more than John Paulson’s puppet, now, anyway?

  8. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 4:57 PM

    Oh financial journalists, you just makes it sound so easy when you tell me exactly what it was that made the market move today.
    I wish my job was to play Mad Libs every day:
    “US Stocks ________ (verb) as _______ (person/country/company) announces _________(B.S.)”

  9. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 5:04 PM

    do we have to monitor the ‘Greenspan portfolio’ now too?

  10. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 5:05 PM

    Is he back to play the lead in Mr. Magoo’s Adventures Part II?

  11. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 5:06 PM

    Remember that whole saying about monkeys on typewriters eventually writing shakespeare? Yeah that’s what happened here. Random words that came out, that happened to form a coherent sentence.

  12. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 5:07 PM

    That’s Lord of Irrational Exuberance, LIE for short.

  13. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 5:09 PM
  14. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 5:13 PM

    @5 FTW!

  15. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 5:25 PM
  16. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 5:31 PM

    @12
    2 here
    Nice

  17. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 5:36 PM

    This motherfucker is trying to steal my shine!
    -Helicopter Ben

  18. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 5:46 PM

    Pfizer is going to increase its dividend? They just took on an ass-ton of debt to pay for the Wyeth takeover and they’re gonna up their dividend? Wow… just wow. What do they think they are, a bank?

  19. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 5:49 PM

    I take it back – the stock rallied because some analyst said they might increase the dividend by mid-2010… no wonder the stock rallied today…

  20. Posted by dorothy | May 12, 2009 at 6:43 PM

    #8 LOVE the madlib idea!

  21. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 6:56 PM

    http://tinyurl.com/pecg94
    alan greenspan. unemployee of the month.

  22. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 7:07 PM

    A lesser rate of decline is not necessarily “a sign of a bottom”.
    It’s simple suppy demand and pricing; supply of existing homes= nearly 10 months of inventory (normal is about 3 months of inventory), pricing continues to slide, demand is tepid with unemployment rising even in the face of the FHA letting people use the $8k tax-credit as a downpayment.
    Time and low prices solve every problem. Pricing hasn’t fallen enough yet, but it will, someday. 2 or 3 years from now the banks and the people who are waiting for better prices to sell will give up and take any price they can get.
    Greenspan was speaking to the NAR (National Assoc. of Realtors), what could he say without getting his Towne Car keyed?

  23. Posted by guest | May 12, 2009 at 9:35 PM

    @12
    Its not irrational exuberance if you create it, right?
    @22
    No, no, no! The NAR is the end all and be all of economic forecasting brilliance! Having you seen the commercials, the bottom is now, BUY!

  24. Posted by merkin capital partners | May 12, 2009 at 11:10 PM

    why is yogi berra so pissed?

  25. Posted by guest | May 13, 2009 at 12:04 AM

    Chrissakes. You people make me want to puke. Not one shred of LL Cool J props?

  26. Posted by guest | May 13, 2009 at 12:33 AM

    So in what part of your body is your Greenspan tattoo on? Sensitive spot or not, I bet you don’t want that to be ever removed.

  27. Posted by guest | May 13, 2009 at 12:38 AM

    @15 … nice work.

  28. Posted by guest | May 13, 2009 at 9:48 AM

    Oh Greeny, please go away. Nobody cares what you say anymore. You’re like a broken-down, 40-year old, ex-champion boxer getting knocked around by tomato cans.

  29. Posted by guest | May 13, 2009 at 9:50 AM

    …I been here for years
    Rockin my peers and puttin suckas in fear
    Makin the tears rain down like a MON-soon
    Listen to the BONUS go BOOM!!!!!

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