Now He Tells Us

The secret about Alan Greenspan is that he has made a number of mistakes over the years. Supporting Bush's tax cuts is near the top. Now Mr. Greenspan is telling us something many of us have known for thirty years. ABC News has the story:

Oil will remain an important element in meeting the future energy needs of the United States, but it does not have to be the most dominant factor. That was the testimony of former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan as he returned to a congressional witness table for the first time since leaving the Fed.

"Current oil prices over time should lower to some point our worrisome dependence on petroleum," Greenspan told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Still, higher oil prices will inevitably move vehicle transportation to hybrids, and despite the inconvenience, plug-in hybrids."

In the same ABC article, Senator Richard Lugar clarifies Greenspan's usual mumbo-jumbo:

Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., told Greenspan: "We believe that America's national security and economic well-being depend on reducing our dependence of foreign oil."

Later, in the same article, Greenspan seems to get the hint from the senators and finally says:

"We're running out of oil..."

There, that wasn't so hard to say. Perhaps Greenspan will remember that he's retired and can now speak his mind plainly. Actually, he could have done that when he was Fed Chairman, and saved us some trouble.