国际英语新闻：Greenspan defends his role in financial crisis

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan Wednesday denied his policies causing the global financial crisis, and warned that regulators can't fully prevent future crisis.

"The house price bubble, the most prominent global bubble in generations, was engendered by lower interest rates, but... it was long-term mortgage rates that galvanized prices, not the overnight rates of central banks," he told a panel investigating the causes of the financial crisis.

Greenspan has been criticized for the low interest rates led to the housing bubble, which eventually burst in 2008 and caused the economy into a deep recession.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan testifies before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearing on Capitol Hill, April 7, 2010

"The recent crisis reinforces some important messages about what supervision and examination can and cannot do," Greenspan said in written testimony before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. "History tells us they cannot identify the timing of a crisis, or anticipate exactly where it will be located or how large the losses and spillovers will be."