Volcker: This Crisis Is Different .

[elleng]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The financial crisis that has plunged the United States into recession is different in its complexity and scope than previous bouts of turmoil, key presidential economic adviser Paul Volcker said on Monday.

Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said he did not know how long the economic malaise would last but policy makers should use this opportunity to rebuild the financial system on a more stable foundation.

"Crises are old but this crisis is different," said Volcker, whom President-elect Barack Obama has appointed to chair the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

"It's different in its enormous complexity; it's certainly different in the massive intervention of government. It's more global in scope than any previous crises."

Indeed, Volcker said the economy and markets were now feeling the hangover effects of one of the greatest bubbles in history.

He said it started with stock price rises in the 1980s and 1990s and then the housing boom that reached its climax this decade.

"Put that all together and there is no doubt in my mind that that was the greatest rise in asset values, the greatest boom in asset prices in all of human history," said Volcker.' >>>

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/01/13/washington/politics-us-usa-economy-volcker.html

[leftstreet]

1. Capitalism is dying

And The Ruling Class & envoys will meet in Davos this month to try breathing life back into it.

It won't work.

[The Second Stone]

2. Volcker is a Republican operative

When chair of the fed he raised the prime rates to record levels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Volcker The prime rate topped out at over 20 percent.

[Alcibiades]

3. That was the beginning

Of the war on the US working class.