Wealth & Money Quote by Alan Greenspan

A central banker almost never talks like this unless he thinks the grown-ups have left the room. Greenspan’s opening feint - “I’m very much in favor of tax cuts” - is the diplomatic throat-clearing of someone who knows fiscal hawks don’t win elections. Then comes the blade: “but not with borrowed money.” It’s not an abstract textbook caveat; it’s a warning about a political culture that wants the sugar high (tax relief) and the buffet (new programs) while sending the bill to the future.

The repetition of “with borrowed money” is doing real work. He’s turning deficits from a technical byproduct into a moral category: a habit, a dependency, a form of self-deception. By pairing “spending programs” and “tax cuts” in the same breath, he refuses the partisan story that only one side is irresponsible. Everyone is fingered; everyone is complicit.

“And at the end of the day that proves disastrous” is unusually blunt for Greenspan, whose public persona leaned Delphic. The subtext is: don’t assume the bond market will indefinitely finance America’s wish list at polite interest rates; don’t assume monetary policy can mop up political messes forever. When he says “I don’t think we can play subtle policy here,” he’s rejecting the Washington instinct for tiny trims and clever accounting. He’s calling for an unmistakable pivot: match what you cut with what you pay for, or accept that “disastrous” isn’t a metaphor - it’s an outcome.