Not dead yet -- a beacon of light for privatization

Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na...Fed Chief!

Bucheney sense that their efforts are being undermined and the villainous forces of opposition are gaining the upperhand in a struggle that goes to the very core of their hold on power in Metropolis. They pick up the "FedFone" and a beacon of light immediately shines up into the dark DC night.

Alan Greenspan, shaken from his revelry on inverse curves, puts down the thumb-worn pages of the beloved tome he'd been perusing. Sensing trouble, he goes to the window of his book-lined study and, parting the silken drapery, looks up into the night sky and sees the beacon reflecting off of the gathering storm clouds.

"The dollar sign!" he exclaims. "Mayor Bush and Chief Cheney need our help."

Greenspan calls to his young ward and together they don colorful superhero tights and fetching masks. Roaring out of the Fed Cave in the Limomobile they prepare to do battle with the foes of all that is right, good and Objectivist.

The Fed chairman, speaking for himself rather than the central bank, again endorsed diverting some Social Security payroll taxes into individually controlled investment accounts. He again recommended that policymakers do so gradually and cautiously, to avoid disrupting financial markets.

But in some of his most forceful language on the subject, Greenspan argued that lawmakers should consider introducing private accounts because the current Social Security system is outdated. He repeated that he believes the nation has promised retirees more benefits than it has the resources to deliver. And he was explicit about the potentially negative economic consequences of trying to meet those obligations.

While he has previously suggested various ways of trying to restrain the growth of future benefits to bolster Social Security's future solvency, today he appeared to deride such efforts as merely "patching a system that is fundamentally inappropriate for the nation's future [emphasis added]."

"Something's got to give," he said. "We have to find a better model."

Can capitalism be saved? Or will it be "un-privatized?" Find out in the next episode of "The Fed Chief's a political hack," or, "Who let the air out of my stock market bubble?" Same Fed Time, same Fed Channel.

...

In fact, Greenspan has removed his mask. Saying that the alternatives to keep Social Security solvent decades from now (assuming the well-worn hypotheses that its solvency is in "crisis" for the future), is "patching a system that is fundamentally inappropriate for the nation's future," makes pretty clear that Greenspan wants to kill off Social Security entirely.