BBC Interviews Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan

As part of the BBC's upcoming three part series chronicling the financial crisis, a rare interview with the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Dr. Alan Greenspan claims that bankers knew they were under pricing risk but thought they could get out before the financial crisis hit.

In the series, he says: "What happened to the bankers – yes they knew that they were involved in an under pricing of risk and at some point that correction would be made. I fear that too many of them thought they would be able to spot the actual trigger point of the crisis in time to get out."

Seen as a key architect of the worldwide free markets and the subsequent crash last year, Greenspan also warns that human nature will lead to a repeat of the events that unfolded around the world one year ago.  He said: "Crisis will happen again but it will be different. They are all different but they have one fundamental source and that is the unquenchable capability of human beings when confronted with long periods of prosperity to presume that that will continue and they begin to take speculative excesses with the consequences that have dotted the history of the globe, basically since the beginning of the 18th, 19th century or back to the South Sea Bubble...or even before. It's human nature – unless somebody can find a way to change human nature we will have more crises – none of them will look like this because no two crises have anything in common except human nature."

Talking about how he feels being singled out as one of those responsible for the worldwide financial crisis, Greenspan responded:  "You know I'm not saying I'm flawless and I've made no mistakes... that's ridiculous." He also discusses the importance of the role of China in the world economy, particularly as a financial powerhouse contributing to the crash. 

The series, 'The Love of Money' begins on the BBC's terrestrial television channel BBC Two on Thursday 10th September and will run for three weeks.

• Episode 1 – The Bank that Bust the World (9.00pm, Thursday 10 September, BBC Two)
• Episode 2 – The Age of Risk (9.00pm, Thursday 17 September, BBC Two)
• Episode 3 – Back From the Brink (9.00pm, Thursday 24 September, BBC Two)