Our Greenspan

Maureen Dowd, a columnist for the New York Times, wrote this week that people like Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Alan Greenspan should just admit their mistakes, apologize, and disappear for awhile. Instead, they're "slinking back" onto the scene, blaming others, publishing books. As the subprime crisis spreads, Greenspan's role is particularly coming under scrutiny, because of his memoirs and public appearances in defense of now-disputed policies of low interest rates, light regulation and high-risk derivatives. Josef Tošovský is the closest thing the CR has had to a superstar Greenspan-like central banker. He was wildly praised while in office, even as the costs of his easy- license policy mounted. His chances of "slinking into" the top job at the IMF were nixed yesterday, when the U.S. decided to back the EU's candidate. But, like Greenspan, he still hasn't admitted his mistakes, so chances are the book on Tošovský isn't closed yet. [Czech Republic Federal Reserve Czech National Bank International Monetary Fund]