"but the critics never mention the reason for the low rates nor their benefits."

Bob McTeer takes the blame for turning the water on in the Spigot Theory, which I don't credit:

"When recession becomes an issue, as it now is, the remedy involves increasing total spending, or aggregate demand, to match the capacity of the economy to produce goods and services at full employment( TRUE ).

One way to view aggregate demand is by its spending components such as consumption, investment, and government spending. This "Keynesian approach facilitates a focus on fiscal policy( TRUE ).

An equally valid approach that highlights monetary policy is to treat aggregate demand as the money supply (M) times its velocity (V). MV gives you the same spending totals as above( YES ).

A third approach, rarely used, is productivity (output per hour worked) times the number of hours worked. That too gives the same result. It's like describing the same thing in different languages.( OK )

Productivity growth came into prominence in the late 1990s because its acceleration had very positive results. It enabled employers to give pay increases without increasing their unit labor costs. That permitted an easier monetary policy with less worry about inflation. We had faster growth with falling inflation( YES ).

Remarkably, faster productivity growth continued as we climbed out of the recession in 2002. That was a mixed blessing since business expanded with little or no expansion in employment. Rising output coinciding with rising unemployment led to the term "jobless recovery."( YES. THAT'S SOMETIMES AN ODDITY OF AN INCREASE IN PRODUCTIVITY )

While rising productivity was increasing our standard of living, it also depressed employment growth, which is probably not a desirable tradeoff when the economy is weak( I AGREE ). Rising employment spreads the benefits of growth more widely( YES ).

As 2002 progressed, the recovery sputtered and a double dip recession threatened. Falling inflation threatened to morph into actual deflation. Fear of deflation, was the main reason the Greenspan Fed allowed the Federal funds rate to go so low, eventually reaching one percent. Alan Greenspan is routinely blamed for those low interest rates fueling the housing boom, but the critics never mention the reason for the low rates nor their benefits( TRUE. SAME PLAN AS THIS TIME ).

Whether the policy was justified or not, I left my fingerprints at the scene. At the September 2002 FOMC meeting, I dissented, along with Governor Ned Gramlich, in favor of reducing rates. We didn't prevail at that meeting, but the vote to ease was unanimous at the next meeting, on November 6.

I wrote the following rational for the minutes, which are now public:

Messrs. Gramlich and McTeer dissented because they preferred to ease monetary policy at this meeting. The economic expansion, which resumed almost a year ago, had recently lost momentum, and job growth had been minimal over the past year. With inflation already low and likely to decline further in the face of economic slack and rapid productivity growth, the potential cost of additional stimulus seemed low compared with the risk of further weakness.

So, you see, it wasn't Chairman Greenspan's fault. It was mine."

I would have voted with McTeer. But, as I say, I don't hold Low Interest Rates as the cause of our crisis. My main complaint against Greenspan is not recognizing problems and voicing concerns about them. He was too much of a cheerleader for some dubious views about current Political Economy.