US economy has 'less than 50-50' odds of recession: Greenspan

WASHINGTON - Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said Sunday the US economy has a better than evens chance of beating a recession but warned that a housing slowdown could hit spending hard.
"We're heading for a slowdown," he said on NBC in the latest television appearance to publicise his new memoirs, "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World."
"My own guess is the odds are less than 50-50 that we're heading to a recession, but there is no question we've got significant pressure on home prices, which I expect to move down quite considerably lower," he said. "
And that will curtail the net housing wealth of the American household, and history tells us that causes some weakness. It's too soon to call this one really."
Greenspan's memoirs lay out explosive charges such as that President George W. Bush was driven to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in a large part by a lust for Iraq's oil.
He also accuses Bush of abandoning the Republican party's traditional fiscal restraint through failing to veto "out-of-control" spending by Congress.
On the oil question, Greenspan told NBC that his concern was rather that Saddam was trying to seize control of the entire region and could use the resultant wealth to acquire a nuclear weapon.
"Having him out of power was critical to me," whether by an internal coup or by war, he said.

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