There is a limit to the degree domestic regulation can go without severely impairing the global competitive economic advantages that the United States has enjoyed for so many decades.

It is ridiculous to call the theory of the Fed under Alan Greenspan "libertarian."

With the bursting of the US housing market bubble in 2007-08, praise for Alan Greenspan soon turned into almost universal condemnation. It is all too likely that a similar fate awaits Jean-Claude Trichet as the euro unravels over the next year or two.

In the wake of the burst tech stock bubble and the shock of the terrorist attacks, the Greenspan Gamble was to purposefully ignite a housing boom. Ex ante, it was a reasonable gamble, and it almost worked.

The Fed's role in banking regulation, orfinancial regulation, is not well understood.

A reason frequently given for financial market behavior in recent years is the belief that the Fed will bail out the market's mistakes.

Greenspan will have to be called to account for regulatory failings and his interest rate policy.

It is too soon to drawdefinitive conclusions on the extent of the economic damage wrought by the ongoing U.S. housing market bust.