Night Of September 15th

Limbs askew, gaping mouth; the victim is clearly dead. Equally clear: it’s not natural causes. This is murder. Violent, deliberate, gory homicide. The victim’s identity has been established pretty easily: it is Th e World Economy, which, only a short while ago, was stepping high, wide and handsome.
Crime Scene Investigation carefully examines the area. A book, still half-open, lies in the victim’s left (the irony!) hand. The investigator pries it loose from the corpse’s stiffened fingers. It is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Rand? Capitalism’s cheerleader? Th e author who championed a laissez-faire fix for a dystopic world? Could this have something to do with why the Economy’s life-blood was all over the sidewalk?

Wait, there’s a name scrawled on the flyleaf: Alan Greenspan. Aha! The Fed Head, the man who practically owned The Economy, who played the tunes it danced to. The investigator pulled up the details on his BlackBerry. Born 1926; displayed early affinity and talent for music and math; went to Juilliard; played bebop in a travelling band; then fell in love with economics. Met Ayn Rand in the 50s, through his then-wife. Unproven that their relationship ever went beyond a close friendship, but he was definitely smitten by her mind; he was an early fan of her philosophy, objectivism. Their closeness lasted until her death in 1982. She did not live to see him become Chairman of the Fed, but her ideas certainly influenced his tenure. Greenspan believed that governments should not interfere, should allow markets the freedom to value financial instruments. Market players will be selfish, he said, but they will exercise care before taking unwarranted risks. Well, Mr. G, there’s a corpse here that says you and Ms Rand were wrong. Dead wrong.

In 1952, after graduating from NYU, Greenspan married artist Joan Mitchell. She introduced him to Rand. Th e marriage broke up 10 months later, but his friendship with Rand flourished. He was a regular in “Th e Collective”, the Saturday night soirees at Rand’s home, and he got to read the first draft of Atlas Shrugged. They remained friends until her death in 1982. Greenspan began seeing a lot of journalist Andrea Mitchell in 1984. They married in 1997. Greenspan became Chairman of the Fed in 1987, under Reagan. His tenure coincided with the longest period of sustained growth in economic history. His hands-off approach to the markets earned him the adoration of both investors and traders. Even when the markets bottomed out, the faithful looked to him for a way out.

Image: Vivek Shinde

When Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, it was the beginning of the end. The economy is now quite dead. Whodunnit? Can we pin this on Greenspan? Perhaps a little flashback is in order? To begin, like all good stories do, once upon a time…

He has been criticised for encouraging the influence of derivatives on the financial markets where, he said, these instruments helped in mitigating risks. Even after the current meltdown, he still insists that there is no problem with these instruments; it is people’s greed that did them in. Greenspan has never admitted any connection between his philosophy and the death blows to the world economy. Th ere will be no confession, Officer. But is there enough evidence to link the murder to Rand and Greenspan? As with her famous play, Night of January 16th, we leave it to the audience to decide. What do you think?

Click here to read the Graphic novel of how it all unfolded