Hoisted from Comments: Allan H. Meltzer, Lehman, and AIG
DonA writes, in comments:
Allan H. Meltzer Stops Being an Economist and Becomes a... I Am Not Sure What...: Not widely noted is the way Meltzer switched positions on the Lehman non-bailout. At the time, he appeared (in his News Hour interview) to compare it favorably to the AIG rescue:
I would say we ought to look at Lehman Brothers. They let Lehman Brothers fail. Within a few days, just a few days, Barclays was there buying up some of Lehman's assets...
A year later, though, in his WSJ piece, he has all the wisdom of hindsight:
After 30 years of bailing out almost all large financial firms, the Fed made the horrendous mistake of changing its policy in the midst of a recession... Allowing Lehman to fail without warning is one of the worst blunders in Federal Reserve history...
It is true: Allan Meltzer is one of those least qualified to criticize Ben Bernanke and company. He was out there in the summer and fall of 2008, yammering away on what he now claims was the side of the bad guys...