The desperate worry over the health of huge financial institutions with country cousin names — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — reflects a reality that has reshaped major spheres of American life: the government has in recent months taken on an increasingly dominant role in assuring that Americans can buy a home or attend college.

U.S. Federal Reserve Former Chairman Alan Greenspan said Friday the Fed will have to tighten monetary policy to put a brake on inflation and said the worst of the U.S. credit crisis may have passed.

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan was quoted on Tuesday as saying the United States was still more likely than not to have a recession despite relative stabilization in the economy in recent weeks.

Wall Street banks are the first to be blamed for the credit crunch. Central banks come a close second, but as the Federal Reserve's image is suffering, the European Central Bank looks as solid as a rock.

Former Federal Chairman Alan Greenspan told CNBC  he had little to do with the  housing bubble or credit crisis despite criticism the Fed kept interest rates too low under his watch.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has defended himself from charges that easy U.S. monetary policy created the current credit crisis by inflating a housing bubble, and instead blamed professional investors.

There is more than a 50 percent chance the United States could go into recession, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan told Spain's El Pais newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Thursday said the U.S. economy is "clearly on the edge" of a recession.

The U.S. economy is probably in a recession or about to slide into it, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.