After Alan Greenspan testified before Congress recently, a question crossed our minds: In this failing economy, caused by a dearth of actual currency and a wealth of imaginary credit, where does the (real or invisible) buck stop?

Greenspan, during his captainship of the Federal Reserve, was dubbed as brilliant. We hung upon his utterances, as investors gauged his most minor of inflections for hint of where the Fed was leaning.

His economic policies made many people rich and earned him an enormity of credit (not the dangerous variety, though). With the collapse, however, Greenspan should also earn a preponderance of blame.

He could have accepted some responsibility during his testimony. He didn’t.

Instead, the fearful American public was treated to an unwieldy phrase – a “once-in-a-century credit tsunami” – and his “shock” that lenders, when earning immense sums without end, left shareholders vulnerable.

How shocking.

Greenspan passed the buck. He’s not alone. Since this crisis unfolded, the only thing more frenzied than stemming its tide has been placing the blame. All ideological and partisan sides have terrible weaponry to use to do so.

Democrats have “eight years” of economic policies from President Bush. Republicans return fire with “social equality” and past policies to relax mortgage lending standards at Fannie Mae.

Capitalists see a failure of government, since the $700 billion intervention runs counter to essential free market principles. Progressives view the bailout as rescuing architects of the disaster from the consequences of their actions.

And the American public, which has been left to swirl in this vapid blame game, has watched values of their homes and retirement accounts sink like stones.

It would be nice to see someone accept responsibility. The blame is evenly spread: Democrats, Republicans, government officials, capitalists, progressives, investors, credit raters, banks, etc., all have dirt under their fingernails.

So far, the public – which has yet to feel the full effects of this fiscal crisis – has been treated to a parade of former executives, economists and disgraced financial geniuses all passing the buck.

Greenspan was the last straw. He departed the Federal Reserve pre-crisis and could have evaluated it with the same cold calculation with which he formerly gauged the impact of quarter-percent interest rate changes.

He commanded the Fed for more than 18 years. His stature – in times of prosperity – was Olympian.

Yet his inability to parse his responsibility or, at least, answer his critics, is disappointing.

If Greenspan is right, and this is a once-in-a-century credit crisis of tectonic proportions, it’ll take more than more money or better policy to fix things. It will take something that’s lacking: responsibility.

It will take somebody, finally, saying the “buck stops here.” We might just want to listen to the first somebody who does.